Mercenary Wars

Chapter 212 Water Cellar Ruins
The air was briefly still.

Gaucano stroked his chin: "Or you can choose to stay here."

"Stay here?" James the undead blurted out. "What's the point of staying in a place like this? It's a water cellar that's been abandoned for hundreds of years and there's no water at all."

Darius: "The undead don't need water or food either, you can survive here perfectly well."

Gaucano: "There's not much here, but the advantage is that it's safe enough. If you crave resources or opportunities, you have to go into the human world and risk being discovered by the Church at any time. You inevitably have to give up one of resources or safety."

James the Undead sighed, "Alas, I didn't have to make this choice! Sindragosa, if only I could have remained asleep forever!"

Daryls: "In fact, you were a carefully chosen target. Given the condition of your corpse, even if we don't intervene, you will almost certainly become a ghost in a few years—and the outcome may be unpredictable."

"Now, under Sindragosa's protection, you at least have relatively complete memories and the same personality as in life," she added. "I suppose you wouldn't want to become one of those mentally twisted undead, would you?"

The undead James did not speak.

After a while, he sighed again: "Alright, I choose to stay here. At least until I regain my spellcasting abilities from when I was alive, I have no choice but to stay here."

Then he looked up: "Are you planning to leave now?"

Darlis and Gaucano exchanged a glance, then shook their heads: "No, we're going to awaken a few more undead."

“By Mosa, this is so immoral!” James the undead said instinctively.

Gaucano said, "That way you'll have some companions, won't you? Are you planning to live alone in the water cellar?"

The spirit James thought for a moment and realized that he really needed some companions, and living alone in the ruins of the water cellar was definitely not a good idea.

So he said, "Never mind... You're right, some people are destined to become the dead. Actively transforming themselves can at least lead to a better outcome."

"I'll lead the way for you." He stood up and waved.

Gaucano and his group then followed James and continued their exploration of the water cellar ruins.

Walking along the road, Gaucano asked, "By the way, the Kingdom of Asur was the first country to establish Mosaism as its state religion, right?"

“Of course, Asur is the oldest Mosaic nation; this is common knowledge for every Mosaic!” said the spirit James. “Don’t people of your time even understand this?”

The thought that his country was the first to convert to Mosa made him stand tall with pride, even as a dead man.

Gaucano pondered, “What I mean is… is there any evidence? For example, some original documents that are almost as old as the Kingdom of Asur.”

“Evidence?” James paused, scratching the smooth, white skull. “I don’t know, I’m not a historian. But you can ask Pierce later—if he can also be turned into an undead.”

"Is Pierce a historian?"

"Pretty much. Anyway, he knows a lot of things and knows quite a few obscure spells."

James the Ghost clearly had a flawed understanding of how to guide them. The cistern was designed to be a vast, interconnected space. However, due to the damage caused by war and the passage of time, the interior of the cistern is now fragmented by sand and fallen rocks, making it more like a maze. Moreover, the structure of this maze was clearly formed after James's death, rendering his guidance largely ineffective; Gaugano and Darius still retraced their steps quite a bit.

Fortunately, they managed to find Pierce. After several twists and turns, and after Daryls had examined dozens of skeletons, James dug out a half-buried skeleton from the shallow soil.

“I bet this is definitely Pierce!” James the Undead picked up the skeleton, his voice trembling with excitement. “Look at those collectible front teeth, there’s no one else like them in Asul!”

He then asked, "So, can Pierce be transformed into an undead?"

Daris stepped forward, cast a spell to assess the situation, and then concluded: "It should be able to be converted."

Then she and Gao Jiano rearranged the magic circle stone slabs and skulls, poured in the necromancy potion, and chanted the incantation.

Before long, Pierce was also successfully transformed into an undead and awakened from his long slumber.

"For Mosa, for Asur, for Shackleton... How did I become a ghost?!" Like James, Pierce's first reaction upon discovering he had become a ghost was also one of disbelief. His reaction was even more intense, erupting in wailing and lamentation.

Fortunately, James offered some words of comfort: "Man, at least you're not alone."

That being said, judging from his much calmer tone than before, his true thought might be: at least I am not alone.

With the encouragement of his companions, Pierce gradually accepted his new identity, and at least stopped crying and wailing.

After recovering slightly from his emotions, Pierce asked, "What era is it now?"

"The year is 1459 of the Fangfuluo calendar," Gao Jiano said.

Upon hearing this result, Pierce remained silent for a moment, then suddenly reached out to Gaugano and Darius.

"What?" They were both stunned.

“Clothes,” Pierce said. “The bishop taught us that we shouldn’t be naked. You brought me into this world, you should at least give me some clothes!”

Daryls and Gaucano both felt that this explanation was a bit strange. But they didn't say anything, found a set of clothes that fit them fairly well from their storage rings, handed them to Pierce, and also found a set for James.

"Pierce, is there any historical evidence to support the claim that Asur was the first to convert to Mosaism?" Gaucano asked as he handed over the clothes.

Pierce was slightly surprised: "Is there no evidence of this in your time?"

Gaucano: "Yes. It's mainly because of the fall of the ancient Asur Kingdom. Too many ancient artifacts were lost with the fall of the Asur Kingdom. Therefore, although most people believe that Asur was the first country to convert to Mosa, no one can provide firsthand evidence to confirm this."

Pierce realized something: "Ancient Asur...you mean, Asur was later restored?"

“That’s right.” Gao Jiano nodded. “The current Asur is a county, and it is said that the count is a descendant of a branch of the ancient Asur royal family.”

After hearing this backstory, Pierce was speechless for a long time before finally saying, "There is evidence. I have evidence in my storage ring."

That's as good as saying nothing; along the way, Gao Jiano hasn't seen a single storage ring.

Pierce noticed that his storage ring, as well as those of all the skeletons nearby, were missing, and couldn't help but ask, "Did you take my storage ring?"

Gaucano: "I haven't seen any storage rings here."

James: "It was probably taken by adventurers who came here before."

Pierce pounded his chest in frustration: "This is terrible! All my collection is in my storage ring!"

After a moment, he sighed, chanted an incantation, and transformed himself into a human: "This feels much better. James, aren't you going to disguise yourself?"

“I have a lot of missing knowledge about magic in my memory, and I may need to relearn it,” James said.

Pierce nodded without saying anything.

James looked at Gaucano and Darius: "Shall we continue?"

"of course."

Gaucano and his group continued their search for suitable skeletons, which they then converted.

After a flurry of activity, they successfully awakened four intelligent undead.

This made Gaucano's group rather large: one person, one bear, one owl, and five undead. "Dallis, are four enough?"

“One more is needed,” Darius said. “If I awaken one more, I will be able to perfectly fulfill the oracle of Sindragosa.”

James pointed and said, "We'll have to go check that out there."

Pierce frowned: "I feel like there are fewer people in the water cellar than before."

Another spirit said, "I have the same feeling. In my remaining memories, I remember dying with two people, but after being awakened, I didn't see their bodies."

“There are indeed fewer. I remember there were many people around me before I died, but now, apart from the body buried under the falling rocks, all the other bodies are gone.”

"Adventurers wouldn't take corpses, would they?"

Without a doubt, even if other adventurers had been here before, they would not normally be interested in corpses.

To put it another way, assuming the adventurers were necromancers or other dark magic enthusiasts who needed to collect corpses, there's no reason for them to only collect a portion while ignoring the bodies of James, Pierce, and others.

After all, from any perspective, those that can be transformed into intelligent undead are all high-quality corpses. If a necromancer really came, he would definitely have taken the corpses of James, Pierce, and others with him.

The group quickly came up with the most reasonable possibility.

“It’s quite possible that those missing corpses have spontaneously awakened into undead,” Pierce said.

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines. Compared to ritual transformation, the spontaneous awakening of the dead is far more random, and can easily lead to mental distortion.

The reason why the dead are not accepted by ordinary creatures is not only because of their inherently terrifying appearance, but also, and most importantly, because of their twisted minds.

Mentally twisted spirits usually have an inherently evil personality. They may possess perfect intelligence, but they have absolutely no emotions or virtues.

For example, compassion, an important component of human nature, forms the basis upon which humanity has built many moral principles, thereby supporting the partial existence of trust even among strangers.

But mentally twisted undead have no mercy; they only follow the law of the jungle and are naturally unable to coexist harmoniously with normal creatures.

"Does this mean we might encounter a battle?" one of the undead asked Daris timidly. "Maybe we should just forget about it. Didn't you say that we only need to awaken one undead to complete the oracle?"

Daryls: "But that's just the bare minimum."

She paused for a moment, then continued, "And since you've decided to stay here, you'll inevitably encounter those awakened undead sooner or later. If they are enemies, at least we can fight alongside you now."

"Alright, may Mosa be with you..."

"It should be 'Bless Sindragosa,' we are now all children of Sindragosa."

The group rallied their spirits and headed towards the unexplored area of ​​the water cellar ruins.

After a while.

"Coo coo," Little Owl made a wary sound.

Everyone stopped in their tracks.

"Cuckoo!"

There was a more obvious sense of vigilance in Xiao Gu's voice.

Considering that it has the best vision in the team, Gaucano immediately used animal communication to ask, "Little Goo, what do you see?"

Little Gu stared ahead: "A big house, and skeletons, lots of skeletons!"

A large house? How could there be a house in the ruins of a water cellar?

Gao Jiano was surprised and immediately used his Eagle Eye technique to look.

With the help of Eagle Eye, he finally saw the big house that Xiao Gu had mentioned—it was indeed a large building, much larger than an ordinary house.

Even with Eagle Eye, his eyesight was probably still not as good as Xiao Gu's. He could see the houses, but he couldn't see the so-called "many skeletons" clearly. At the edge of his field of vision, he could only see some vaguely undulating figures.

Just then, Little Gu said again, "Two skeletons are coming this way."

Gaucano: "They've found us?"

"Probably not," Xiao Gu said.

After thinking for a moment, Gao Jiano turned around and pointed, saying to the group, "There are two undead coming this way, but they probably haven't noticed us. Let's retreat and hide near that boulder."

The group immediately ran to the boulder he had pointed to.

However, they soon discovered a problem.

Little Black is too big.

So much so that it was impossible for it to hide behind the boulder.

As the undead drew ever closer, with no other option, Dariss could only use illusion magic to turn Little Black into a giant rock.

Illusions are obviously not very effective at creating illusions.

Therefore, Gao Jiano repeatedly instructed in animal language: "Little Black, don't move around or make any noise."

The black bear was lying on the ground.

The two spirits continued walking towards this place.

Gradually, everyone could see what they looked like.

It is obvious that one of the two undead is a wise undead and the other is a mindless undead. The former occasionally gives commands to the latter, while the latter, even under command, shows some clumsiness.

This is also related to their attire.

The wise undead carried only a longsword, nothing else.

The mindless undead carried a warhammer and wore a suit of armor.

The armor was rusty and obviously too big for its size, making a clanging sound when walking, adding to its cumbersome appearance.

Walking along the road, the wise spirit holding a long sword muttered, "Fate is truly wondrous. In life, you always said I was stupid, but what about now?"

He struck the mindless undead with the blade of his sword: "Tell me, who's dumber now?"

"It's...me." The mindless undead paused in his heavy steps, uttering a stiff voice.

"That's right!" The wise undead nodded in satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)