Do you have a problem with necromancers?

Chapter 96 Exploration
The first level of the sewer system in the capital city is connected to the ground in many places through courtyards, so both the lighting and ventilation are relatively good.

Upon reaching the second level, the environmental conditions deteriorated rapidly.

First, there are vast areas of complete darkness, requiring torches to illuminate the path ahead. Even so, it is still impossible to completely avoid the numerous traps and mechanisms scattered throughout.

Secondly, areas with poor air circulation, especially dangerous areas where methane gas accumulates, can cause violent explosions if exposed to an open flame.

Finally, there are the dangerous enemies lurking in the darkness. Raising a torch in the dark is tantamount to telling them, "I am here."

Despite having scouts and thieves provided by the black market to help with reconnaissance, and a map leading to the entrance to the third level, the Sand People's team still suffered casualties during their exploration. Two people injured their ankles by spikes protruding from the floor below, and another was grabbed by the ankle by a drowning ghost in the water and pulled into the depths of the underground river.

In such an environment, rescuing people was almost impossible, so the chieftain could only ignore the faint cries for help and indistinct wails coming from deep within and order all the sand people to remain on guard.

The sand people were on high alert, constantly waving torches to illuminate their surroundings, fearing that another unexpected trap or monster might spring out from the darkness. Although this inevitably meant their whereabouts would be constantly exposed, they had no better option.

Meanwhile, Renn led the two elves down to the second level of the sewers, entering a pitch-black darkness.

Bersalia launched a fireball with one hand, intending to provide some light, but was stopped by Renn.

"Extinguish".

"Oh?" Bersalia immediately extinguished the fireball and asked in the darkness, "Don't you need me to provide light?"

“No lighting is needed,” Renn replied. “If we’re exposed to light, the monsters will spot us more easily.”

“In this environment,” Ellina questioned, “the negative impact of darkness on us is probably even more severe than on the monsters, isn’t it?”

"Not necessarily." Renn snapped his fingers.

A moment later, rustling sounds came from all around.

Immediately afterwards, countless tiny, eerie blue lights appeared, the soul flames flickering in the eye sockets of the ghoul rats.

"What is this..." Bersalia suddenly hugged Ellina beside her, her voice trembling as she asked, "You brought those rats back to life?"

Ellina was speechless: Your acting is way too exaggerated.

“They’ve never really died,” Ryan retorted, bewildered. “You don’t think you can just jump into a well and kill my immortal rats, do you?”

With a slight thought, the swarm of immortal rats swiftly rushed along the passage deeper into the tunnel, quickly triggering the mechanisms along the way.

To stab!

From the holes in the floor, dense, rusty iron spikes pierced through the rats' bodies in an instant. The ear-piercing sound of metal scraping and flesh being torn apart was crystal clear in the silent passage.

Ellina and Bersalia looked grave, because these spikes were incredibly fast and activated almost without warning. If someone accidentally stepped on one, dodging the moment it activated would be extremely difficult.

However, for a necromancer, these dangerous and vicious traps become a joke.

The spikes that had protruded from the ground retracted back into the floor, leaving behind rats riddled with bloody holes. Some had their abdomens pierced, their intestines spilling out; some had their skulls pierced, their eyeballs popping out of their sockets; and others had their limbs severed, with only a few tufts of fur connecting them, drooping limply to the side.

With a gesture from Renn, the writhing, convulsing rats on the ground suddenly began to writhe and merge, their flesh and blood intertwining. Together with their scattered severed limbs, they were all reassembled into intact bodies and began to run in circles around the trap floor.

"Your flesh-manipulating sorcery is truly disgusting," Ellina said, frowning. "Any form of physical attack is completely ineffective against you and your undead army, right?"

“Otherwise?” Renn said matter-of-factly. “To deal with an almost massive army of White Walkers, it’s perfectly reasonable for a necromancer like me to use a lot of skill points on creating an undead army, isn’t it?”

“Look on the bright side, Eileen,” Bersalia said with a smile. “It means we’re immortal too.”

“That’s because we’re already dead,” Ellina sighed.

The three of them bypassed the trap floor marked by the rats, and saw these dirty, furry little creatures quickly rush forward to continue exploring the path.

Although no torches were lit, the soul fire in the eyes of the ghoul rats briefly illuminated their path. As the swarm moved quickly and cautiously, the group could roughly discern the surroundings—where the floor was, where the walls were, where the waterways were, and where the deadly traps lay.

Suddenly, another heavy, loud bang was heard ahead, accompanied by a large number of soul flames being extinguished.

Ellina reacted the fastest, unleashing a bolt of lightning that streaked through the air with a dazzling, blinding trail before striking the source of the sound.

It was a burly ghoul covered in black fur, nearly three meters tall, and when it stood upright it could even reach the ceiling. At that moment, it was stuffing rat corpses into its mouth and chewing them up.

The fairy princess's lightning struck its chest, creating a gaping wound the size of a large bowl, causing the ghoul to roar in fury from the pain.

It opened its large, foul-smelling mouth, filled with sharp teeth, and let out a threatening roar at the humans and elves in front of it.

This extremely high decibel sound carries enough energy to tear eardrums. When an ordinary person is hit by the sound wave, it is like being hit by a stun grenade at close range. They will instantly become deaf, dizzy, and lose consciousness, leaving them at the mercy of the ghouls to decompose and devour them.

But the instant Renn saw it open its mouth, he swiftly cast a curse on everyone:
Deprivation of hearing.

All the ambient noises around Ellina and Bersalia vanished completely at that moment, as if they had fallen into an empty and void abyss. An indescribable fear involuntarily overwhelmed them—this fear was not the effect of magic, but rather the instinctive aversion of the dead souls to returning to the stillness of death.

Fortunately, both elves were ancient heroes with extremely strong wills. They quickly suppressed the strange feeling in their hearts and shot the spell at the ghoul again.

A bolt of lightning struck the ghoul's gaping maw, paralyzing it and freezing it in place. The ensuing Cloud Burn spell transformed the ghoul into a raging fireball, sending it tumbling into a nearby waterway. It struggled frantically, trying to extinguish the flames, but quickly succumbed to the destructive magic and lost all strength to fight back.

The three stood by the waterway, watching the ghoul's enormous corpse continue to burn in the water, when suddenly Berthalia said:
"I have an idea."

"Please don't." Ellina covered her cheek and let out a helpless sigh.

"Why not?" Ryan said leisurely. "I think it's a very good idea."

A moment later, the dead ghoul stood up again.

It took over the role of the scout rats, its body still ablaze with flames, like a giant, moving torch, charging forward on all fours. When it encountered a spike trap that suddenly appeared, it used its tough hide to withstand the damage, then smashed the floor with its immense strength, brutally destroying the mechanism.

The various monsters lurking in the surrounding darkness were terrified at the sight of the terrifying fire ghoul and retreated frantically, none daring to approach this creature that radiated so much light and heat.

Renn and the two elves followed leisurely behind. With the lighting problem solved, the traps no longer a concern, and the enemies having retreated and fled on their own initiative, the once perilous second level of the sewers now felt like a relaxed and pleasant outing.

“I have to admit it,” Berthalia remarked. “To crush evil with a higher level of evil is truly a wonderful thing.”

"Is this why you studied necromancy in your lifetime?" Ellina sneered. "It's a good thing you died beforehand. I'd rather have been resurrected by Rein Fahre than open my eyes to see your wicked grin."

“That’s obvious,” Renn said seriously. “I’ll just order you to work, and Berthalia will definitely make fun of you.”

“I object,” Bersalia protested. “If I were to resurrect Eileen, I wouldn’t humiliate her in any way… at most, I would make her my personal maid. Seriously, Renn, Eileen is more suited to be a personal maid than little Dia. She’s definitely an expert in those extravagant and decadent ways of the nobility, far beyond your imagination.”

"Shut up, Bersalia!" Ellina snapped. "Don't spout nonsense in a dangerous place like this!"

Raine walked quietly ahead, seemingly unconcerned about the two elves' bickering. Just as Ellina had said, the most important task at hand was to reach the entrance to the third level as quickly as possible, not to try and figure out whether they were genuinely arguing or just putting on an act.

The map the Sand People bought from the black market didn't include the path they were currently on. However, Rein remembered that the second level of the sewers wasn't designed as a winding maze; as long as the target location was in a specific direction, and you could clearly move in that direction, you could reach it quickly.

And indeed, about half an hour later, the group finally arrived at the entrance to the third level: a rather spacious cave.

Unlike the previously man-made vertical shafts, this cave seems to be closer to the shape and outline of a natural cave. Waterways extending from the surrounding area pour wastewater from the first level into it, forming several waterfalls with huge drops.

Standing at the edge of the cave, one can see the lake below and the ropes secured to the cliff face. "Those sand people went down before us," Besalia whispered. "There's still blood on the ropes; judging from how it's congealed, it was about half an hour ago."

“They’re almost all dead,” Renn said.

"How did you know... Oh." Bersalia finally realized that there was a "spy" resurrected by Renn in the Sand People's ranks. Everything that was happening on their side was completely transparent to Renn.

Most necromancers research how to resurrect more and stronger undead creatures. He, however, took a different approach, making the undead creatures almost indistinguishable from the living. In some ways, he was actually more insidious and terrifying than most necromancers.

"Should we go down this rope?" Ellina asked, "or just jump down?"

“None of them are safe,” Renn said.

He manipulated the still-burning flaming ghoul, leaping from the top of the cave into the pool of water at the bottom.

The two elves looked down and saw that the ghoul had been pierced by a large number of sharp spikes hidden underwater, and a chilling sense of terror immediately arose in them.

Raine cast a spell again, extracting all the bones from the ghouls below and forming a swaying rope ladder in the air. It rose vertically like a serpent controlled by the Piper and soon hovered in front of the three.

“I think yours is the most unsafe,” Bersalia asked suspiciously. “Won’t it break off halfway down?”

"What does it matter?" Ellina calmly grabbed the rope ladder and draped herself over it. "Even if I fall and get impaled to death, I can just be resurrected. Do you think he'd let us just go back to our eternal slumber like that?"

Bersalia pursed her lips and followed Renn up the bone rope ladder.

The rope ladder began to descend slowly, swaying gently as it flew to the edge of the pool, allowing the three to land successfully.

The group, now on the ground, observed their surroundings again. It appeared to be a cave carved out by flowing water, with the pool connected to an underground river nearby, but the river was blocked by iron railings nailed to the rock walls.

A translucent banshee, floating in the air, opened the iron gate from the inside, then flew to the ghoul's corpse, her expression seemingly puzzled:
"Oh, it's a ghoul. My master will be very happy to see it, but how am I going to carry it back by myself?"

Its gaze darted left and right, and suddenly it noticed Renn and the others on the shore. Its expression immediately turned venomous and fierce. Just as it was about to open its mouth and let out a hallucinogenic scream, it saw Renn casually reach out his hand and point lightly.

Summon plunder.

The necromancer's ability to summon and maintain undead creatures is essentially a pre-written program that can be hacked from the outside. To protect the program, encryption is needed; for example, Raine's "Caged Bird" has the highest level of "firewall." However, most necromancers don't research this area because there are simply too few like them.

The succubus, realizing her control had shifted and that the man before her was now her master, immediately softened her previously ferocious expression, slowly flying to his side and saying in a sweet voice:

“My new master, is there anything Natasha can do for you?”

"Lead the way," Renn coldly ordered. "Take us to find Marconius."

"Yes, Master." The little demon obediently led the way for the group.

“Raine,” Ellina suddenly asked, “these banshees are…”

“It is clearly the necromancer named Marconius who transformed the young woman who died into an undead creature,” Berthalia replied. “The shape of flesh and blood can be changed at will, but the appearance of the soul does not lie.”

Ellina paused for a moment, then asked:
"Will you let these banshees rest in peace? I mean... after you find that Marconius."

“Ellina, my target has always been only Princess Jinsha.” Raine, who was walking ahead, replied with a somewhat bored expression. “Only ancient heroes who are powerful enough are worth enslaving and driving. As for these weak banshees, I don’t care if you want them to rest in peace.”

Elrina visibly breathed a sigh of relief, while the little banshee flying ahead paused for a moment, also revealing a complex expression, and said:
"Merciful master, thank you for granting me eternal slumber in the future. Also, the Princess of Jinsha you just mentioned is the very person Marconius has been trying to resurrect for the past few years."

“Oh, tell me more.” Ryan immediately became interested.

Marconius had been tinkering with things in the third level of the sewers for so many years, and he hadn't kept it a secret from the banshees he thought he had complete control over. Therefore, the answer was quickly obtained from the little banshee:

“Many years ago, Marconius… I apologize, Master, as a spirit, my perception of time is too vague… Anyway, many years ago, he discovered a tomb here, with a tombstone erected next to it, saying that the tomb contained the daughter of General Jinsha from ancient times.”

“After consulting historical records, Marcus concluded that Princess Jinsha was an extremely beautiful and powerful woman, and therefore wanted to drag her soul out of the River Styx and turn her into a female monster like us.”

"However, finding a soul from a thousand years ago in the River Styx is not an easy task... Is there a problem with what I'm saying?"

Ellina and Bersalia both glanced at Renn instinctively, then shook their heads and said:
"No problem, please continue."

"In short, Marconius studied this for a long time but never got anywhere," the little banshee continued. "He would occasionally go out to buy books or capture experimental subjects, but he would spend most of his time in the meditation room meditating, trying to establish a deeper connection with the River Styx."

"If the bucket isn't big enough, it's useless to lengthen the other planks if you don't fill the shortest one," Ryan commented. "That's how academic test-takers are; if they can't solve a problem, it must be because they haven't done enough problems. You should all learn from this."

“I know, the other party is far inferior to you,” Ellina said perfunctorily. “You are the most powerful necromancer… Continue.”

“A new group of strangers broke in today and have already been captured by Marconius, so he should be in the laboratory next to the prison. However, since my control has been transferred, he might have noticed it too,” the little banshee whispered. “So he may have already set a trap or ambush us, waiting for us to walk right into it. Please be careful, Master.”

“Not necessarily,” Renn said with a sneer. “His control spells on you are extremely crude. I doubt that even if you appeared in front of him right now, he might not be able to detect anything unusual about you.”

“In that case, let’s finish this quickly.” Ellina frowned. “I’ve had enough of the stench in this sewer.”

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Marconis was in a very good mood.

The simplest way to communicate with the River Styx is to kill someone. By observing and monitoring test subjects in a near-death state, one can see how a soul gradually becomes a ghost and slowly enters the River Styx from the real world.

This kind of research could greatly improve necromancers' understanding of death, but Marconius wanted to do the reverse research, that is, to drag the souls of the dead back to the world of the living from the River Styx, but he still had no clue about this.

While hiding deep in the sewers could avoid harassment and assassination attempts by the Imperial Inquisition, it also made collecting test subjects quite difficult, since transporting living people to the depths of the sewers was no easy task.

Therefore, Marconius cherished every experimental subject. Now that so many Sand People had arrived, he had enough to use for a very long time.

The Sand People had come to search for the remains of Princess Jinsha. Marconis was quite surprised that they had managed to find this place by following various clues, but unfortunately... he had no intention of giving them the remains.

Princess Jinsha's father was General Jinsha, the ancient hero Taramusor, whom the sand people worshipped most. Legend has it that he possessed godlike fighting strength. His wife gave birth to a son and a daughter. The son inherited his formidable strength and physique, as well as his unwavering spirit and character, while the daughter inherited his swiftness and dexterity, as well as his extraordinary beauty.

Coincidentally, Marcus's requirements for undead creatures were that they be powerful and beautiful enough... The latter was rather rare for necromancers, because most necromancers were so used to dealing with all sorts of rotting corpses that they had lost the ability to distinguish between beauty and ugliness. But Marcus was a latecomer to the profession, and his aesthetic sense had not completely deteriorated. He simply could not accept ugly and unsightly ghouls.

The reason for choosing to create succubi is that their appearance will remain that of the woman at the most young and beautiful time of her life, and all their skills will be focused on bewitching and influencing minds.

Marconis had a premonition: if he could summon the soul of Princess Gold Sands from the River Styx and transform it into a banshee, she would be the most powerful banshee in history.

At that point, he could swagger back to the guild with the banshee and slaughter them all, making them admit that the biggest mistake the guild made was expelling him...

Upon returning to the laboratory, Marconius saw that the Sandman on the operating table was already dead, his expression still bearing extremely ferocious and terrifying traces.

Dying in immense agony, with a sufficient amount of negative emotion, increases the weight of the soul, allowing it to remain anchored for a period after returning to the River Styx. Unfortunately, these experimental subjects cannot be reused; once they die, they are completely worthless.

"Karen! Bring another test subject over!" Marconius shouted outside.

The succubus can bewitch humans, causing experimental subjects to walk over in a daze and lie on the operating table, thus saving him a lot of effort.

"Yes, Master," came the banshee's reply from outside.

Why is that Natasha's voice?
Marconius didn't dwell on that; he simply turned his back to the door and continued disposing of the body.

(End of this chapter)