Looking at the back of the two Villagers walking back into the forest, Allen had used his Ability [Hungering Gaze] on them.
——-
[Name: Gril.
Age: 39.
Speciality: Farming. Physical labour.
+ Currently in a blessed state.]
——-
Morphed under the power of Divine Energy, this ability no longer made those he made eye contact with freeze in terror, it instead showed him basic information about the subject.
'Damn he's only 39? He looks like he's in his fifties!' Allen knew that for whatever reason [Vile Curse] Blesses the target instead of Cursing them, but he always double checked to make sure he didn't actually curse them.
As they finally went out of view, Allen placed his hand on the table he was resting at a suddenly a piece of still warm bread popped out. This was his [Chaos Dimension], despite such a dangerous sounding name, it now function exactly like an Inventory space that was 15x15x15 ft.
"So my blessing actually heals people slightly, that's good to know..." Allen had an idea on how to utilize this info as he began walking back to the grave yard to perform his job as a grave keeper.
In a world where people always have a risk of becoming a zombie after death, Grave keepers were actually a well respected job that people are incredibly grateful for. Grave keeper don't just hurry the dead, they also had to be capable of using Divinity to purify bodies in order to guarantee they don't become zombie.
Thankfully as only three villages were close to him, and those villages only harbored a little over 1000 people in total, he shouldnt have to work to hard burrying the dead...
***
"879...880....881...882...." Standing infront of the monastery was Allen carrying a cat sized rock, performing squats as a pool of sweat was underneath him.
His legs were extremely shaking as he was having trouble holding up the rock, that was when a sudden surge of white light eminated his entire body!
'Vile Curse!'
[You have blessed your target.]
[You have been blessed]
His shaking and bulging legs and arms suddenly stopped as he continued his work out.
"883, 884, 885, 886, 887, 888" the healing affects of his blessing washed through his injured muscle and healed them!
After spending a few days testing to make sure he actually retained the muscle gains from this supernatural healing, Allen began working out like no tomorrow!
While his blessings can heal people, he unfortunately found that it had its limits. After purposefully cut himself deeply with a knife, his blessing was able to just barely stop the blood flow. It was only after his fourth blessing did the wound completely disappear leaving no trace.
Allen figured his blessings were much less efficient than even a low level Healing spell, but instead of having to manipulate his Divine energy and say a chant, his blessing were instantaneous thanks to it being his profession ability! And unlike healing prayer that he would stagnate and stay the same, his [Vile curse] ability had a proficiency bar and would presumably level up.
It was to be expected the blessing was less effective at healing than a healing prayer as blessings did much more than just simply healing, they also helped ward off evil and could even increase the recipients luck!
Now that he'd found an everyday use for the ability, he soon began making important discoveries.
Like how he realized that he could control the amount of Divinity he poured into his abilities, and it would affect the strength of his ability! All this time he'd been wasting loads of Divinity purifying the dead corpses, when just a little was enough to give the bodies the purified status affect when he inspected them.
Being reborn in this world of Godlike creatures, Allen had no plans on pushing his body to the limits and slashing mountain ranges in half, he merely wanted to be able to run away faster and be able to defend himself.
He didn't know if they purposely stocked this run down monastery full of books about world politics and martial arts manuals in hopes Allen would turn his life around, but Allen wouldnt pass up on the opportunity to learn more about this world and learn how to defend himself better.
He had read about the basic exercises that paladins and soldiers in the Holy army had to perform, so he started with those.
"Imperial Prince-nim…! Imperial Prince-nim!" Hearing the farmers from before, the rock in Allen's hand disappeared into his inventory just as they appeared from the fog pulling a cart full of corpses
"More people died? Must be that damn plague " Allen said with sadness.
Hed already buried 17 body's in just the three month hed been in this world, which was a major hit to these villages population. Not to mention those dying to this plague were mostly very young and very old, which took a major toll on Allen's mind.
"Are these also plague victims?" Allen said with an edge in his tone, taking on the impression of the vile seventh imperial Prince.
"Y-yes s-sir" the younger farmer said with a little fear in his voice.
"So why aren't they cremated" using his changed ability [Horrifying Howl], which Allen redubbed [Authority] because when active his voice emitted power and authority.
"S-sir please don't be angry! W-we just c-couldnt bring ourselves to burning these bodies!" The old farmer, that Allen now knew as Gril, said in fright.
"So you bring them to the graveyard in the Land of Dead, probably the most powerful 'Negative Spot' on the planet? How long ago did they die?"
As if on que, the wagon suddenly began bucking wildly as three zombies promptly stood up under the intense negative energy in the graveyard.
"AAARRRGGGG!!!"
"..."
While spitting out phlegm-filled roars, the zombies tumbled down from the wagon and began shambling forward towards the screaming farmers.
Letting out a loud sigh, Allen pulled out his shovel from his inventory when the farmers weren't looking and walked forward towards the slow staggering zombies.
Slamming the shovel into the knee of the closest zombie, a loud crack resounded out as it collapsed to the floor. With two smacks to the head, the zombie was finished as the two other zombies were still slowly making it's way over to him.
'The shovel is literally the perfect weapon for zombies, it's a blunt weapon that has a bit of range to it so I don't have to get within their strike range.'
Following the same pattern as the first, Allen dealt with the two zombies with ease. With the last strike to the third zombies head, the head cracked open and blood splattered all over Allen's face.
"Since you fools keep bringing me zombies, you can do the digging!" Allen snapped in anger before wiping the blood off his face.
'Even if we're dealing with zombies, it's still a sickening feeling killing them. And these idiot are refusing to burn the bodies, allowing the disease to spread!'
Sitting down on the floor, Allen watched the farmer get to work with guilty faces as he reached into his pocket, accessing his inventory, and pulling out a still steaming potato, eating it in annoyance.
After realizing blessing heal others, he began testing it's other features and found it would eliminate the body's natural grime and odor. But now that he was caked in zombie gore, he's gonna have to hike down to the stream and actually bath himself and his cloth.
The two farmer made quick work of the graves as Allen chipped in after thirty minutes of resting.
After purifying the bodies with a [vile curse], Allen buried them and read out the funeral scripture per the religions traditions, feeling a tiny raise in his Divinity after finishing the funeral.
Spiking the wooden headstones into the ground, Allen was done for the day and began walking back to his monastery, allowing the two farmer to go back home
"S-Sir..." As Gril spoke, Allen stopped in his tracks as he stared daggers at him. Taking a heavy gulp, the older man continue speaking.
"W-we believe the villages have been cursed by an evil spirit, o-or some other dark being. B-because no plague functions like this!"
"An evil spirit you say? I havent read up on anything about evils spirits, and why are you telling me this?" Allen didn't like where this conversation was going.
"W-well, Imperial Prince. You're a Priest, aren't you? How about exorcising the evil spirit from the village…?"
'Son of a Bitch. I'm these villages grave keeper that has to burry their rotting loved ones, and now their asking me to become a Ghostbuster and fight off evil spirits!?'
Frowning heavily towards the farmers, "like I said previously, I'm more like an honorary Priest, I don't know jack about exorcising Evil Spirits."
"You might not know how, but your powerful blessing should be enough!" Gril yelled, his fear evident in his voice.
"My blessing? What are you talking about?"
"W-With this terrible plague going on, the corpse collectors have been constantly getting sick removing the dead. But that Blessing of yours seems to have protected us from this disease, and even healed our old injuries!" Now that Allen could get a better look, he noticed Gril looked younger.
The blessing didn't actually make the man young, it just made the man look more his age now that he no longer had sun damaged skin from three decades of working as a farmer.
"With a blessing this powerful, a Spirit should be easy to vanquish!...We are the last survivors of our village, we emplore you to please and solve the villages problem!" a look of anger could be seen in Gril's eyes, not directed at Allen but at whatever was causing this plague.
There was a heavy silence as Allen listened to the man's rant, before he ultimately let out a sigh.
"Look man, I'm just fifteen years old and this shit looks like it's out of my league. Besides you guys can send letters directly to the Paladin stationed nearby if I start acting up again, just report I'm acting unruly and they'll show up to solve it."
"That's the thing....We already sent three messenger men to report these activities, none seemed to have survived!..." Gril said in a dreadful tone.
'What the Hell! You should have started with us being cut off from the outside world!' Tighting his hand in the shovel, Allen looked deep into Grills eyes.
"Lead me to your destroyed village!"
***
"Well this is a ripe shit hole." Allen said, slipping into his snoby prince persona.
30 or so shacks greeted him with a large portion of them having already collapsed. The windows were shattered and their doors busted open, various corpses laid strewn about.
The scene looked like it was straight out of a horror movies and had all of his nerves on edge.
Seeing the state of a body, Allen moved in for a closers look and saw dozens of tiny chunks of fresh and been ripped off.
"Looks like he's been bitten by something small....." Waving his hand into a cross, Allen poured a tiny amount of Divinity into his Vile Curse ability, just enough to bless the body to purify it and prevent it from rising up.
'Did birds peck at this corpse? No this looks nothing like a birds peck, If I had to guess, I'd look more like a rodents bite....'
Standing up, Allen began to look around at the nearby bodies to get a better idea of the situation.
"I guess it's good you waited this long to come back here, there doesn't seem to be any zombies around." Those that had been exposed to Demonic energy when alive have already turned into zombies and left for deeper parts of the land of the dead.
Allen looked at all the puke, feces, blood and filth that coated everything with a scowl. The smell was revolting.
Looking at his third body, an elderly man, Allen began investigating it when he suddenly came to a halt. Under his close observation, he noticed its chest was beating!
Placing his hand on the beating chest, Allen wasn't too surprised to find it ice cold and clearly dead but the moment he touch the corpse, the beating stopped.
Feeling a strange tension in the air, Allen immediately stood up and back away from the corpse when it suddenly busted open!
An absolutely revolting stench wafted out as a large rat exited the body and seemed to freeze and stare at Allen.
The rats body was nearly a foot in length, it hair was slicked back with red blood, it's red beady eyes radiated a malice for life but what drew Allens attention the most was the faint trace of 'demonic energy' coming from it!
"…A zombie?"
The moment he finished speaking, the rat no longer stared as It then bared its crooked fangs and dashed towards him at a frightening speed.
Despite its speed, Allen knew that zombies had absolutely no survival instinct as he merely lifted his shovel up and timed his attack.
Unlike a real rat that would scurry around in random motion, this rodent running directly at him in a straight line and was immediately squashed into the ground the moment it entered his range.
"What's up with this guy?"
Even though its back half had been turned into paste, the rodent wasn't dead. It was still desperately clawing forward trying to bite into Allens leather boots.
He simply lfted his foot up and heavily stomped on the rats upper haft, ending the rats torment.
"Since when?" Allen said as he looked at the squished rat.
"Pardon?"
"This thing was a zombie. A damn undead rodent, okay? So, since when did things like this little guy begin running around in the village?"
The farmers hastily exchanged glances with each other. Then, while making perplexed expressions, they shook their heads.
"We don't know."
'what a helpful response'
"Is that information important, your highness?" Gril said in worry.
"Well seeing as how this entire village is dead, i supposed its not important any longer."
'I read that Negative spot could affect animals other than humans, but for that to happen the Negative Spot has to be extremely powerful...'
"At least I don't have to waste the Divinity to purify these rats…" Allen jokingly said, trying to cover up his fear.
That rat beside being a zombie, was loaded with demonic energy! It made the rodent fast, it's bites deadly and even increased the chances of a corpse turning into a zombie after death!
*Squeak* *squeak*
Allen froze and immediately followed the sound of more rodents, looking around he spotted a pitch-black shadows surrounding a certain collapsed shack, except it wasn't a shadow! It was a writhing mass of zombie rodents, multiple dozens of them all focused on the collapsed shack.
Seeing this spectacle caused Allen's eyes to twitch, with such a vermin horde around, it'd wouldve been much stranger for the village to have survived than died.
"Do you country folk breed rats like cattle?"
He asked the farmers, and of course, they hurriedly shook their heads.
"So that's just a natural amount of rats? No what am I saying, theres nothing natural about this....."
Hearing Allen's worlds, the farmers looked in Allen's direction and also spotted the swarms of hundreds of rats circling the collapsed house.
"Dear goddess Gaia..." Grill and the young farmer looked at this scene in horror.
"I gathered all i could from the bodies, but I'm curious as to why they are fixated on that house... You two step back." Walking forward towards the mass of rodents, the two farmers didn't hesitate to retreat back and possibly make a get away.
As he entered thirty feet of the swarm, the rodents began noticing him and he knew he was close enough.
Allen sucked in a deep breath, and exhaled whitish foggy air before muttered out the name of his skill.
"[Puddle of poison]."