I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 56 The Staff of the Dead
Ghouls are monsters with a proper challenge level, far superior to rampant creatures like goblins and kobolds. Their heads should be considered as extra bounty.

In fact, if he hadn't come up with a clever trick and activated the shrine while he was shrouded in the stench cloud spell, he might have really perished here today. However, the most crucial factor was that his physique was truly excellent, ignoring the effects of the stench cloud spell. It's just that the smell was really awful, even more disgusting than having swamp gas smeared on your face.

Ghoul hearts and fingers can also be used as enchanting materials and are quite valuable. DuPont chopped them all up and put them in a bag.

This cult member might be a wanted criminal; we can cut off his head and hand it over to the church.

This guy didn't have many coins in his purse, only 4 gold coins, 6 silver coins, and a handful of copper coins. He was even poorer than me. But after searching through everything, I found a dark black, opaque gem.

Black jade: A gemstone with negative energy, valued at around 100 gold.

DuPont happily put everything into his money pouch, then put everything into his spatial bag and looked towards the tomb passage.

There was also a staff there with a very sinister appearance, containing considerable arcane energy.

Bringing over the already activated shrine, DuPont picked up the gray-purple staff inlaid with a skull.

Staff of the Dead
Quality: Rare
Effect 1, Dark Corrosion: When attacking an enemy, you will inflict 1-6 points of Dark Corrosion damage.
Effect 2, Summon Necromancers: Once a day, you will be able to use the Summon Necromancer spell once, randomly summoning skeleton warriors with a total of 1D100 health points in the vicinity. They will randomly attack any living creature within 100 yards, but will not attack the owner of the Staff of the Dead.

Effect 3, Corruption: Holder's Constitution -2. When attacking an enemy, if the enemy cannot pass a Stamina check with a DC of Constitution, the attacked enemy's Stamina is temporarily reduced by 1 point.

Negative effect: When using the Staff of the Dead, the skeletons will whisper to you, your sanity will be subject to an intelligence check, and if you fail, your constitution and charm will decrease by one point. This negative effect is ineffective when you are in the evil alignment.

Note: This powerful staff also carries a terrible curse effect, and the skull mark on it represents an evil organization.

DuPont's first thought was, "Holy crap, that's amazing."

My second thought: Holy crap, is such a strong negative effect even meant for human use?

The battle was over, so DuPont had no intention of using the staff. However, after reading the staff's description, he subconsciously glanced at the skull above.

When I saw a simple skull carved on the skull, my heart skipped a beat.

Although he didn't know what this thing was, it seemed like he had made a huge mistake.

Since the other party is organized, there might be accomplices nearby. I have already used up more than half of my spell slots and trump cards. If I don't leave now, it would be a waste of my life.

But nothing major has ever happened at this Crow Hill Cemetery before. It's been seven days from last week to this week. If the other party had a gang, they should have finished their business long ago. Why would they stay here for so long?

Man Shi once said that when Lavoisier established the Northwest Academy of Magic, he had already dealt with all the ruins that might threaten the academy. This place is only about 30 miles away from the academy. Such a close distance and yet it is an abandoned cemetery. It must have been swept away before.

Based on this analysis, this guy is probably working alone, or he might be secretly researching something here, away from the organization.

For example, the coded message he saw earlier at the wooden door: "During the seventh lunar eclipse, the Gate of Flesh and Blood."

DuPont's knowledge of mystical arts was decent, but his knowledge of religion was really lacking. He didn't quite understand this stuff; he just felt it was like a summoning ritual.

But since he hasn't succeeded after all this time, his magic array must have failed. And since the caster just died and no monsters have come out, there shouldn't be anything inside that could threaten him.

With this in mind, DuPont blessed himself with a quick escape, carried the shrine on his back, lit the sacred candles, and entered the tomb.

He would stay for a maximum of three minutes, after which he would leave regardless of whether he found anything valuable. The tomb was pitch black, but fortunately, he had already activated his Dark Vision Ring. The scene inside the tomb resembled a desolate wilderness under the bright moon; although not very clear, it was enough for him to see.

DuPont sent his skeleton servant ahead to scout the way, while DuPont followed behind. He saw many skeletons piled up haphazardly in the passageway, and in a corner, he also saw a scattered pelt and the remains of an animal that had been stripped of all flesh and blood. It must have been the latest masterpiece of those ghouls.

However, after looking around, DuPont found that there were basically no valuable items here, unless he was interested in taking the bronze and silver burial objects from the buried corpses.

He was no longer poor, and DuPont wouldn't go to such lengths for something so small. With the shrine emitting its energy, the aura of the dead on the first floor of the tomb had mostly dissipated, and he looked toward the second floor of the tomb.

There was a lot of dust here, and there were fresh footprints, probably left by that cultist.

DuPont grabbed his shield and staff and cautiously followed the footprints downwards.

Using his staff to probe the way, DuPont found no traps or monster attacks. As he passed the corridor with the first row of skeletons, he saw a cloth tent in the middle of the open space. There were candles lit at the edge of the tent and some scattered bread and ham, with teeth marks still clearly visible on them.

It seems I should have interrupted his lunch when I came over, so that this guy wouldn't get a proper last meal before his execution.

Continuing forward, as they passed through the second corridor, DuPont saw an evil altar.

A circle of lit candles formed a ring nearly two square meters in size. Seven corpses, whose races were no longer discernible, were intertwined and piled together. The blood in the pool in the center had dried up, but the evil magic circle provided slow and continuous necromantic energy. In the end, all the energy gathered in a large piece of black jade in mid-air above the magic circle.

DuPont grabbed the floating gem and saw detailed information about it.

Soul Stone
Quality: Rare item

Description: A special gem that can provide energy for large necromancy arrays. It requires the souls of humanoid beings as a charge and is one of the permanent currencies in Hell/Abyss.

You can destroy it, which will grant you 1000 experience points and shift your faction slightly towards evil. Alternatively, you can hand it over to a church/some magical organization, in which case you may receive a reward.

Unable to make up his mind, DuPont put the gem away. The corpse in the altar lost its energy source, and a foul stench immediately filled the air.

Looking at the bloody and filthy altar, DuPont thought to himself that he should bring some kerosene next time, otherwise even a single Flame Hand might not be able to set these corpses ablaze.

However, just as DuPont was about to leave, he suddenly noticed that there was still a place in the underground tomb where the aura of the dead had not been eliminated.

That was the last corridor behind the altar.

The shrine's power was still emanating. DuPont picked up his shield and struck it, casting a light spell: "I've found you. Get out here now, or I'll burn this whole place down right now."

Upon hearing DuPont's words, no sound came from the corridor. DuPont knocked on his shield again and slowly approached, hearing a somewhat muffled child's voice from inside: "No..."

Upon hearing this voice, DuPont felt a little uneasy; the voice reminded him of ghosts from horror movies from his past life.

However, thinking that he had already eliminated the ghouls and skeletons, which were true undead creatures, and that he still had a second-circle spell slot, DuPont felt a little more at ease: "Then hurry up and come out. I'm warning you one last time, or I'll use Fireball!"

Upon hearing DuPont's words, a small head soon peeked out from within, its pale face and dark, round eyes making DuPont's heart race.

Holy crap, what a brat.

(End of this chapter)