Apocalypse with my SSS Harem Beauties-Chapter 73: Lantern

Myles glanced at the others and knew instantly from their expressions that the same notification also appeared across their vision.

The air has a different feeling now.

Some of them—Sam, George, even Ethan—looked pale, fear twisting across their faces at the name of Grave of Imprisonment.

The title itself was enough to make their hearts falter. It was an ominous warning carved into their souls.

But mixed within the fear, there was something else—flickers of hunger for more power and more possibility.

Clara, George, Daniel, Kade, and Ryan exchanged a quick look, and they could see the calculation in each other’s eyes. This might be dangerous, but rewards like this didn’t come without reason.

They got 500 EXP that made their levels jump two and even five at once just from finding the place. Such a thing had never happened before.

Their bodies trembled, partly from fear, partly from the rush of new opportunity.

Myles let out a slow breath, feeling his chest tighten with various feelings.

He understood the risk clearer than any of them, but he also knew there was no turning back now after he saw the reward.

His hand tightened around the short sword. He stepped forward.

"We move," Myles said with a firm voice.

Nadine answered without words and just nodded. Victor followed suit, his eyes hard and unflinching.

The others fell in behind them even though they were feeling hesitant but of course they don’t want to stay behind.

Myled nodded at them knowing that they were on the same page.

The mist moved again as they crossed deeper into the graveyard area.

For a moment, the silence was full. Then the ground shuddered and dry cracks split open between the stones, and the bone spires groaned.

One by one creatures began to rise from the black soil. At first they looked like skeletons but different from human skeletons. They have elongated limbs, bent ribs that curled outward, and skulls that didn’t belong to humans.

Their bones dripped with rotten flesh, a sickly dark-green substance seeping from their joints, and dark blue flames burned in their hollow eye sockets.

"Oh, god..." Sam whimpered, stepping back instinctively, but Nadine pulled her forward and setting the girl’s spear in line with her own.

The first of the skeleton’s jaw stretched too wide as it lunged.

Myles moved to meet it. His sword cut through brittle bone and corrupt flesh, shattering the creature into fragments that scattered across the cracked ground.

[+30 EXP]

The notification flickered before his eyes.

Ethan slash at the skull of another creature, the pale-blue flame snuffing out instantly as it collapsed into the mist.

[+30 EXP]

Victor’s cleaver cleaving down through two of them at once.

[+30 EXP]

[+30 EXP]

The others quickly joined the fight and even though fear still clung to their hearts the steady rain of notifications gave them the thrill to keep going.

30 EXP for each kill was more than they had earned from killing mutated humans back in the city.

As another wave of the skeletal abominations clawed their way from the earth, something changed in the group. The fear remained there but it was tempered now by hope and greed for power.

For the first time since stepping into this cursed place, they began to think the same thing.

This graveyard wasn’t just a danger but an opportunity.

The skeletons kept clawing their way up one after another. That happened for about ten minutes. That feels like forever.

Their twisted bones rattled and their rotting flesh dripped with foul sludge that hissed when it hit the ground. The sound of cracking joints and shrill hollow screeches filled the air. While the group was killing them.

But no matter how many they killed, more of them just rose again. The ground rippled and cracked, releasing another batch of strange skeletons crawling out of the black earth.

Their stamina started to drain. Ryan’s breathing grew ragged, while Sam’s hands shook each time she raised her spear.

Even Victor’s heavy cleaver began to drag through the mist as exhaustion mounted. This weapon was indeed big and required more stamina to be used

Then, all at once, the earth went still.

The last of the creatures fell apart under George’s sword.

The silence that followed felt heavier than the noise, the change was too sudden.

Everyone froze in place, waiting for the next wave. But nothing came.

The soil sealed itself, the groans of the bone spires died down, and the mist swirled quietly.

"What... what happened?" Ethan whispered, turning slowly. His voice sounded too loud in the eerie stillness.

They all looked at one another with unsure looks. The graveyard was vast, the mist rolling endlessly between jagged stones and towering spires. They felt like something was watching them from beyond the darkness.

Then Nadine stiffened, her eyes narrowing as she pointed forward. "What is it over there?"

Through the mist, a faint orange glow appeared. It was soft at first, like fireflies hovering in the fog. Then the light grew brighter, flickering in rhythm as if it was carried by someone walking closer.

The group tensed, weapons raised instinctively.

Myles stepped forward, his sword angled at his side.

The glow swayed, moving slowly and deliberately.

Soon, the outline of a figure began to form. It was a tall figure draped in mist. Its step echoed as if heavy boots pressed against hollow stone when it walked.

The orange lights weren’t fireflies at all—they were lanterns.

Two of them dangled from chains gripped in the figure’s hands.

The others whispered in panic.

"Is that... a person?" Clara muttered, uncertainty trembling in her tone.

"No," George answered immediately, his voice tight. "That’s definitely not a human."

The figure finally broke through the mist enough for them to see clearer. Its body was covered in ragged robes stitched together from strips of blackened cloth and bone fragments.

A hood concealed most of its face but under the shadow they could see its jaw that stretched unnaturally wide and lined with teeth that gleamed like sharpened glass.

The lantern flames burned brighter and unnaturally, casting an orange glow over the cracked dark earth.

The skeletal remains scattered around them twitch under the light.

Myles gripped his sword tighter, his voice low. "Get ready to fight again. Use your points from level up to your stats now!"

The others swallowed hard and shifted their stances. Their earlier sense of victory was crushed by this new terror walking straight toward them.

They immediately use their stat points to strengthen themselves.

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