Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 57 [Pranger in the Swamp]

Cluck! A brownish-green toad lay on a wet rock, its throat sac slowly swelling and then calming down, its large yellow frog eyes slowly focusing, staring at a small, fleshy creature wriggling in the mud in front of it.

It slowly moved its wet webbed feet, and suddenly with a splash, it stuck out its sticky, long tongue and sucked on the fleshy little worm in front of it.

Splash! The wet mud burst open, and sharp, jagged teeth snapped shut, a huge mouth grabbing the toad whole and swallowing it whole.

Amidst the muffled splashes of mud and stagnant swamp water, seven or eight toads and strange fish darted about wildly, but calm returned to normal after a few seconds.

The ripples on the water's surface subsided, leaving it smooth as a mirror once more. The mud and loose soil gradually settled, and the tongue-like tentacles, mimicking tiny flesh-colored insects, once again emerged from the soil, wriggling and twisting in the mud, trying to attract the next victim.

“A beautiful ecosystem.” Samael stood in waist-deep stagnant water and murmured, watching quietly as a huge black mosquito fell into a pitcher plant-like carnivorous plant, its wings being pinched off by the thorny, cage-like leaves.

The scanner is now enabled.

[Seven types of chemical ecological plants, specializing in biochemistry and pharmaceuticals]

Depending on the biological tissue in which it is applied, it secretes three complex proteins, which have hallucinogenic, analgesic, anticoagulant, and neurotransmitter blocking effects, respectively.

[Requires a high humidity environment to grow.]

“It’s truly abundant… It’s just a pity that if this one were moved from its native environment, it would probably have a hard time surviving,” Samael said in a low voice.

Despite saying that, he still dug up a plant and handed it to the rotten root ball on the bank.

More than twenty taro-shaped, rotten root balls, covered in mud, scurried about among the swamp's mud, hard soil, and tree roots, each topped with a variety of plants scanned by Samael, rushing towards the underground city. These included several edible, juicy root vegetables, seven or eight different kinds of mushrooms, a type of sugar beet, papyrus for papermaking, and reeds rich in hard fiber.

In addition, the root-rot cacti also use their broad roots to weave nets that trap several fat and ugly edible fish, resembling pale catfish with long claws. They can live in oxygen-deficient water and can even briefly leave the water to crawl on the shore.

It's alright if we can't fish in the lakes of Lahadur; the marshes of Prange have plenty of fish, and they seem easier to raise on a large scale. Groundwater is being introduced into the underground city, using a network of root bulbs for ecological purification; the water storage is already halfway complete. Once these fish are raised on a large scale, the food problem will be solved.

“The flora and fauna of the swamp ecosystem are almost more abundant than those of the gray moss wilderness of Ansba and the misty lakes of Lahad Datu combined,” Samael said softly. “It would be nice if we had the chance to live here.”

“I don’t agree.” Talia’s annoyed voice rang out from behind.

Samael turned his head.

"Aren't you going to come closer and take a look?" he beckoned.

Talia pinched her nose, frowned, and stood at the edge of the swamp, watching Samael studying plants and animals in waist-deep stagnant water.

A larva of a ground-devouring demon worm scurried around her feet, crunching at rotten wood with its spiraling fangs.

“You have no sense of smell, but I do.” Her once smooth and pretty face was scrunched up by the stench of the swamp. “Can’t you smell anything at all? The stench of decay in the swamp?”

Samael shook his helmet.

"Can't you feel this wet, sticky mud?"

“I have a sense of touch, but I can’t distinguish much,” Samael shrugged.

“Oh, no wonder other Ghost Knights can live in this godforsaken place,” Talia teased.

“I need to take another shower when I get back… Although there isn’t much clean water available now, they still built a simple washroom in the original complex for a quick rinse and cleansing.” She frowned and waved away the large mosquitoes swirling around her head. “Stop studying plants and animals, hurry up and get on the way. We need to find the Cave Queen and get out of this hellhole.”

“Oh… a washroom is necessary, there might be pathogens in such an environment… although I’m not sure how strong the demons’ immunity is, or if they will get sick.” Samael struggled to pull his legs out of the waist-deep stagnant water, but failed.

The underwater silt has a strong suction force, and the Nether Bronze's body was too heavy, so almost its entire lower leg sank in.

He awkwardly extended his dirty gauntlet toward Talia.

"Please, you should wash yourself when you get back, okay?" Talia reached out and grabbed his mud-covered bronze gauntlets, forcefully pulling him out of the stinking, lifeless mud.

“We’ll talk about it when we get back—we’ve collected almost all the plants and animals, it went quite smoothly, the food problem is solved… Next, we need to find cave dwellers in this area.” Samael wiped the mud off the soles of his boots on the rusty copper tree roots on the bank and stomped his legs around.

The peat underfoot was also soft, like a wet sponge soaked in water, and a puddle of brownish dirty water would gush out as soon as you stepped on it.

The mud marshland is located south of the Takagrass Plain. The terrain here is low-lying, almost at the same level as the groundwater. There is a small canal in the east that flows into the marshland from Lake Lahadur, but there are almost no channels for it to flow out. Poor drainage has resulted in the area being covered by puddles of all sizes all year round, and the soil moisture content is close to saturation.

The surface of the marshland is covered with a layer of duckweed-like aquatic plants, the leaves so crowded that they are not visible on the water's surface. At first glance, it looks like a meadow, but if you take a step, you will fall into stagnant water and silt of unknown depth.

The trees standing here also have a coppery blue hue, but they are different kinds of rusty copper giants, thick and swollen, as if they have absorbed a lot of water. Their huge aerial roots are like wildly proliferating tentacles, forming three-dimensional bridges and mazes on the water's surface.

“There might be iron ore here,” Samael said in a low voice. “The water is slightly reddish…”

He recalled some knowledge he had seen somewhere before: underground rivers would erode iron ore deposits, causing some iron to dissolve in them and be carried into the downstream swamps. Because the swamps had few outlets, the iron was concentrated in the marshland.

The water in the swamp will gradually precipitate iron-containing deposits, and the siderophile anaerobic bacteria in the peat layer will also metabolize into spherical, loose "swamp iron".

It is said that the Vikings used "swamp iron" to forge their iron weapons. They would search for colorful oil films in swamps to locate the metabolic traces of thermophilic anaerobic bacteria. By digging into the peat layer, they could find spherical swamp iron nodules. Using dried swamp peat as fuel, they were able to forge high-quality ironware.

The erosion by groundwater... there must be iron ore deposits beneath the marshes of Prang and the lakes of Rahador. Samael silently noted this down.

I vaguely remember unlocking a material called "Holy Iron" in the Materials Science section, which might come in handy in the Necromancer Civil War. I don't have any iron ore on hand, but in an emergency, I can steal some from underground.

“There are traces of what looks like cave dwelling activity here.” Talia examined the peat, trying to discern tracks resembling those of an arthropod. “They’re running away, trying to escape something…”

"The undead?" Samael asked in a low voice.

“I’m not sure, the marks here are strange…” Talia hesitated, “Look.”

She pointed to a huge patch of corrosive liquid on the tree trunk next to her, resembling the residue of an explosion and burning.

“Perhaps some kind of self-destructing undead?” Samael recalled the types of undead that Gwyneth had mentioned before. “The water in the swamp will tan the skin of corpses into a dried, hard leather like that of a mummy, and it will also ferment the humus into an acidic explosive liquid similar to an unstable potion.”

"That's enough, no need to describe it anymore." Talia grinned with disgust. "Demons are just warlike because they have excess energy, not perverts."

“No, no, Ansba said that Prange of the Swamp liked to study all sorts of necromantic byproducts, including tools and infected items, and equipped them to his subordinates,” Samael recalled. “This shouldn’t be a self-destructing necromantic, but some kind of reproducible explosive projectile—because the corpse of the Skeleton Heart has already decayed more than half, and now the corpse and necromantic creatures are a resource that the Ghost Knights need to carefully manage. Prange wouldn’t waste precious necromantic creatures with a self-destruct tactic.”

"The unarmored necromancers around here are now within my aura range and won't attack unless provoked. Search with confidence. Before Planger finds us, let's achieve our objective and leave this place."

“Your fellow creature seems to enjoy bullying small animals.” Talia walked around the corroded bronze tree in front of her, pinching her nose with one hand and scratching at a shriveled corpse behind the tree with the other.

It was a medium-sized crocodile, covered in duckweed.

Half of its skull bore scars from the corrosive effects of some kind of acid bursting. Two short, barbed brass harpoons were haphazardly embedded in its carapace, while a massive bone hook clung firmly to the crocodile's jaw, tearing a gruesome wound with its tip almost embedded in its jawbone. The blood at the wound, mixed with sewage, had mostly dried.

The crocodile's carcass was covered in wounds, but none were fatal. It was probably injured by Prancing's undead minions and then fled frantically with a harpoon, barely managing to shake off its pursuers, but it died from blood loss.

Otherwise, its carcass would certainly have been taken back to Prange's tomb—the crocodile's carcass was huge and of high quality; if Prange had caught the crocodile, he would not have left its carcass in such a place.

A master of props… Samael sketched out the image of Purang in his mind. A hunter adept at utilizing his environment, perhaps a fisherman.

Talia wandered around, tapping here and there, looking around, and finally stopped in front of a mark.

“Your fellow creature is a bit ruthless,” Talia muttered. “Judging from the footprints, the cave dwellers originally lived in the central area of ​​the swamp, but they were all chased by the undead and fled in a panic. Something must have happened to their original lair, and it was completely abandoned.”

"There are some digging marks here, left by them when they were looking for a new nesting site. However, the soil in this area is loose and leaks badly. It is a symbol of the insects' nest migration."

“Ah, Prange was probably too lazy to build his own tomb, so he seized the cave dweller's lair in the center of the swamp as his own burial chamber.” Samael snapped out of his reverie. “And what about the cave dweller queen?”

"They don't seem to have found a leak-proof place to dig a nest yet—if they weren't killed, the Queen is probably hiding in a makeshift nest somewhere with the other cave dwellers."

"Alright, let's get ready to dig." Talia grabbed the Earth-Eating Worm by the neck and pulled it away from the rotten wood. "Let's look for solid strata around here. We might find something unexpected if we stumble upon a cavity."

The earth-devouring demon worm flicked its short, bony tail and plunged headfirst into the damp, peat-rich soil.

"Move as quickly as possible. I'll keep watch around here." Samael nodded and beckoned to direct seven or eight sword-and-shield undead knights from behind, who were scattered around the area around Talia, keeping watch for any movement in the surroundings.

The water's surface was covered with dirty aquatic plants, rippling with blurry waves, and occasionally a toad's croaking could be heard, making the silence somewhat unsettling.

Anxious… Why are there no birdsong? Samael looked up, glancing around for waterbirds on the branches. He remembered hearing birdsong when he first entered the swamp.

After searching for a long time, he finally spotted a waterbird perched on a branch overhead, but it remained silent, hiding in the dim shade of some tree, as if it were afraid of something.

Why is that? Is there something nearby that it perceives as dangerous?
Samael looked around, his gaze suddenly falling on the water in front of him.

A small patch of duckweed on the distant water seemed to be moving. Samael remained silent, slowly activating the Nether Bronze Printer, and a sword and shield quickly materialized in his palm. He loosely held the kite-shaped shield, but did not immediately raise it in front of him; instead, he strolled casually along the shore.

The peat layer beneath their feet was trampled by the bronze boots, causing it to ooze a little juice and make a soft sizzling sound.

The shadows of the duckweed in the distance paused for a moment in the ripples of the water, slowly rotating and adjusting its direction. A tattered duckweed leaf turned and slowly aligned itself with Samael's position.

Bubbles surged underwater, and a shadow resembling a crocodile floated silently among the silt.

“Prang?” Samael asked in a low voice.

The duckweed did not answer.

“Prang…” Samael’s voice carried and surged through the murky water, taking on a dull texture from the deep, stagnant swamp, accompanied by a buzzing liquid echo.

Pop. A bubble burst. The shadow beneath the duckweed slowly sank, its blurry outline disappearing.

Samael remained silent, slowly retreating until he leaned against a swollen, rusty bronze tree, and slowly raised the dark bronze kite-shaped shield in his hand.

On the open water in front of us, seven or eight duckweeds began to drift at the same time, vaguely forming a hazy encirclement.

Whoosh! With a splash of water, a short bronze harpoon burst out of the water with a whooshing sound, piercing through the water and air, and flying straight toward Samael!
With a loud clang, the kite-shaped shield barely blocked the attack. Samael whirled around the air roots at his feet and hid behind the swollen, rusty copper tree.

Whoosh! A series of whooshing sounds accompanied by the splashing of water, followed by a series of clanging collisions and the dull thud of a barbed harpoon head sinking into tree bark.

Samael cautiously peeked out from behind the tree, where seven short, barbed brass harpoons were nailed to the trunk, dragging a slender, thin rope woven from a mixture of dried muscle and tanned leather.

Seven or eight bronze winches underwater began to spin simultaneously, and the tough ropes woven from muscle and leather dragged the short bronze harpoons, pulling them out of the tree trunks and pulling them back into the water with a splash.

If he hadn't dodged that barrage of fire, while his body wouldn't have been destroyed, the bronze harpoon would have pierced his armor, and the barbs would have dragged him into the muddy water. Samael, shield in hand, cautiously observed from behind the tree.

Eight bronze helmets, resembling buoys, were stuck to duckweed and floated in the water.

Splash! Splash! Amidst the splashing water, eight tanned corpses wearing wide-brimmed helmets of dark bronze slowly rose to their feet. Their emaciated, rotten black skin was wrapped in brown crocodile skin coats with strong camouflage, the hems of which swayed, making them look like eight experienced swamp hunters.

Their slender, tough claws gripped powerful crossbows and spring-driven bronze harpoon spears, with winches attached to the sides for retrieving the spearheads and dragging prey.

Each tanned monster had a dozen or so barbed spearheads hanging from its waist, four or five large waterproof leather bags, and a variety of strange tools, making it almost as well-equipped as an adventurer, like an experienced swamp hunter.

“We can talk…” Samael blurted out instinctively.

The moment they stood up, the eight tanned monsters pulled out a small ball of green fungus from the pouches at their waists and hurled it at Samael.

Crackling! Crackling! Crackling! The slurry burst continuously, accompanied by a hissing, bubbling, corroding sound. In an instant, a layer of bark was corroded away from the trunk of the Nether Copper Tree where Samael was hiding, revealing the bluish-white trunk beneath.

Clucking laughter echoed through the marshland, and the waterbirds on the branches cowered in fear, hiding in the shadows of the intertwined twigs.

“Welcome to the Great Swamp, unfamiliar face.” The tanned corpse in the helmet chuckled. “I thought it was Rahado… but after Rahado stepped on a bear trap and had his helmet knocked off by a small flying stick last time he came here, he said he’d rather go find Ansba than come back to me.”

The helmeted zombies slowly reloaded their harpoon guns, tightening the crossbow bolts and powerful springs.

"The truce is so boring. It's rare to have you here to help me test out these new gadgets." They held their harpoon guns level, splashing through the water, and slowly surrounded the tree trunk where Samael was hiding.

"You can't wait for the truce to end either?" Prange's voice echoed through the swamp. "Don't worry, the last three days of peace will be over in the blink of an eye. I've prepared plenty of new toys for everyone—oh, and what are your traits and tactical style? I can prepare a custom gift for you too, just like Santa Claus—ho, ho, ho! Hahahaha!"

“Alright, thank you. You’ve dispelled my last thought of resolving the issue through peaceful negotiation—such an unrealistic idea shouldn’t exist,” Samael replied from behind the tree.

“Of course, if you come to me, I can accept that—I think you’re quite shrewd, maybe you could be my assistant? Help me hunt for materials, do some work?” Prange’s voice chuckled among the seven or eight helmets. “In exchange, I can spare you from the attack when the war starts.”

"No, thank you," Samael replied. "I have more important work to do."

"Oh, then there's nothing we can do." The wide-brimmed helmeted tanned corpses of Prange, carrying harpoon guns, slowly made their way ashore through the water. They split into two groups, carefully avoiding the large trees, intending to use their harpoons to pierce and hook Samael, dragging him into the sewage.

"Let's go swimming! Is there anyone who doesn't like swimming?"

The helmeted undead wore no armor; the tanned corpses themselves had strong buoyancy, and the bronze harpoon guns and crocodile skin armor served as counterweights, which helped them maintain their levitation.

However, Samael's bronze armor was exceptionally heavy and would sink immediately upon entering the water. Even normal walking would cause him to sink into the underwater silt. If he were pulled into the water, he would be at the mercy of Prange's tanners.

The tanners, harpoon guns held high, their long handles pressed flat against their sides, their tough, black leather fingers gripping the bronze springs, slowly approached Samael behind the tree.

The moment the four tanner hunters on the left turned around the Nether Bronze Tree trunk, a Nether Bronze Hammer Spear swept across fiercely, knocking all four tanners away at the same time!

[Beast posture material used: Conquest]

The powerful heavy weaponry techniques used in warfare are suitable for breaking up groups of unarmored and lightly armored targets.

While hiding behind the tree, Samael melted down the Nether Bronze Kite-Shaped Shield and the Knight's Sword, reforging them into a massive Nether Bronze Hammer Spear!

[Bio-like posture material has been used: Forging]

Samael gave them no chance to get back up. The bronze hammer slammed down, crushing the tanner hunters and their parrying harpoons into pieces.

On the other side, four tanners circled around the tree trunk and, taking advantage of Samael's busy finishing blow, suddenly pulled the trigger!

The moment the crossbows were triggered and the harpoons were fired, the charge of the four sword-and-shield zombie knights sent the four zombie hunters flying. The shoulder ramming and elbow strikes of the [Lion Fighting] combined with wrestling techniques threw the zombie hunters to the ground, and the four knight swords simultaneously [Falling Kill], severing the zombies' heads.

The bronze helmet, covered in duckweed leaves, fell to the ground, echoing with Prange's laughter.

"Playing with combat techniques? Proficient in combining and constructing combat techniques? A good target! It's decided then and there, you'll be our first target in three days!"

Samael picked up the wide-brimmed helmet from the ground and melted it into a pool of funerary copper.

He waved his hand, and the Corpse Knights bent down to pick up the harpoon guns and leather bags from the remains of the Corpse Hunters.

Click. A soft click as the fuse was triggered.

Samael was startled. He didn't have time to tell the Corpse Knights to throw away the bag, so he could only roll behind a tree to the side!
Crack! Crack! Crack! The continuous explosions, sizzling corrosion sounds, and splashing liquids mingled together, and bone spikes flew everywhere, embedding themselves in the surrounding tree trunks and branches.

A dozen seconds later, the swamp finally fell silent again.

After being subjected to a series of corrosions, explosions, and spikes, the giant bronze tree that Samael was leaning against finally collapsed under the weight, revealing Samael behind the tree as he reforged his hammer and spear back into his shield.

The giant tree collapsed with a crash, its upper half broken off and falling into the swamp, splashing water and mud, startling a flock of screeching waterbirds.

The ground was littered with the remains of the dead.

The corpse knights' bodies were mostly corroded by the acid, and their bronze armor was pierced with dozens of small holes by the spikes from the explosion. The spikes also had barbs, making them impossible to pull out.

The pouches and harpoon guns that Samael originally wanted to retrieve for research were also destroyed, leaving no structure left that could be studied.

A giggle echoed somewhere in the swamp. In the distance, a helmet topped with duckweed floated on the water before disappearing beneath the surface. Two trails of water, like wakes, parted the dense duckweed leaves and swam deeper into the swamp.

How insidious… Samael muttered subconsciously. Oh, well, you can’t say that, after all, he seemed to have done something similar before—though the purpose was different, the methods were almost the same.

He rummaged through the ground and picked up a small fragment of a bronze fuse, suddenly realizing that it was a bronze segment combined with flint.

The fuse is remotely controlled by Planger using a copper component—although the component is difficult to assemble into a usable construct, it is still suitable for use as a remotely controlled fuse.

Prange is very clever... On the other hand, it seems that there isn't a single knight in this godforsaken place called Skeleton Heart who is truly stupid and incompetent. Everyone has their own unique skills, and everyone can give you unexpected surprises.

Perhaps, as Rahador mentioned before, only exceptional souls are chosen to become Ghost Knights.

The enemies are getting fiercer and fiercer, and the pressure is increasing.

Samael was a little tired, but he could faintly hear Talia's voice behind him.

“Found it…” her anxious voice came from behind, “The cave dwellers’ temporary nest. Their queen is in poor condition, but there’s still hope…”

"Here I am." Samael composed himself, regained his usual composure, and trotted off towards Talia.

“Let’s go. Let’s get out of here before the other undead in Prancing surround us.”

(End of this chapter)