Wizard: Starting from Escape from the Thorn Garden

Chapter 82 Undead Knight

After quickly processing the remaining materials, Kate walked out of the hall. The first thing he needed to do was find a stable place to stay.

After all, the trial still has about 200 days left. Kate needs a stable place to rest and recuperate in addition to hunting and exchanging, to handle some things that require a long time to process, and to verify some witchcraft ideas.

As they stepped out of the hall, they saw several low-ranking wizard apprentices selling something to the emerging trial participants. One of them, a fair-skinned blond youth, saw Kate and walked towards her.

"Sir, do you need to rent a house? I have several houses that previous trial participants have rented. They all have recommended protective, alert, and cleansing magic arrays. The environment is beautiful and the space is large, which is very suitable for a trial expert like you."

The blond boy looked at Kate with a bright smile, his eyes clear and sincere.

Kate nodded and asked, "What's your name? Judging from your age, you were probably not even 10 years old when the last trial participants came. Where did you get a house that several trial participants had stayed in?"

The blond boy's smile remained unchanged as he slowly replied, "Yes, Wizard, my name is Miler. We are all commoners who came to settle in Vientiane Tower from the outside world with the first batch of wizards. Apart from those with wizarding talent like me who can choose to leave with the trial participants after advancing to level 4 wizards, most people live their entire lives in this town. Therefore, my house was inherited from my elders, and it's not a lie I told to sell it. So, in addition to renting and selling houses, we also provide many services, such as errand running, shopping, information consultation, and directions."

Kate nodded. "I'm Kate. Lead the way. I do need to find a house as temporary accommodation during my trial."

"Yes, Lady Kate, we guarantee you'll be satisfied with our house," Miler said confidently.

After walking less than 2 kilometers, Miler stopped in front of a three-story house. "This is the best one I have. The fee is 4 magic stones per month. If you rent it until the end of the trial, I can give you a small discount, so it will only cost 25 magic stones in total."

Outside, 25 magic stones would be a year's earnings for a level 3 wizard apprentice, but given the limited space within the Trial Tower, it's normal for them to be a bit more expensive.

Kate followed Miler into the small building. The entrance was a spacious hall with some simple tables, chairs, and stone benches, all made using the clay sculpting method. The house had been solidified with simple magic arrays, just as Miler had said, making it very suitable for these trial participants to live in. The second and third floors were similar, except that they were divided into several rooms that could be used as temporary storage rooms and laboratories.

Kate nodded in satisfaction and pointed out 25 magic stones and a few broken magic crystals as a tip for Miler.

Miler's smile widened. A wizard who was willing to give a tip was usually quite wealthy, as it would allow him to obtain more magic stones.

"Lady Kate, thank you for your generosity. Miler was born in the Tower of All Things and is very familiar with the situation in this plane. If you have any materials or potions to sell, you can contact me at any time. Just leave a message in front of the mailbox in front of your building, and I will check on you every day."

Kate became somewhat interested, then chatted with Miler for a while before letting Miler leave.

After Miler left, Kate conducted a thorough inspection of the entire building and made some modifications to the witch arrays.

After confirming that there were no problems, Kate closed the door of the small building and walked out of the town.

Kate took a deep breath, the cold, deathly air filling her lungs and bringing a slight burning sensation.

He immediately activated the passive protection of the Shadow Thorn Ring, a subtle spatial distortion covering his entire body. At the same time, he fully activated the Seed of Origin to suppress the almost greedy throbbing of the Bloodthirsty Vine in his right arm caused by the dense death energy.

The Alliance Amulet and Emerald Beacon activated automatically, making Kate much more comfortable.

Here, the Blood-Eating Vine is no longer a burden, but rather a powerful tool against environmental erosion. It can devour the death energy of the dead and transform it into energy to nourish itself, but it must be controlled properly to avoid being devoured by its ferocious instincts.

He quickly checked the dimensional bag.

The Thorn Shadows suffered more than half of their losses in the previous battles, with only ten remaining operational, most of which were damaged.

The reserves of medicines have also been depleted.

Although his condition wasn't at its best, his mental sea, under the guidance of the Seed of Origin, had become more refined through purification and baptism, and his control over the Bloodthirsty Vine had also improved due to the continuous suppression.

"Eternal Desolation—The Heart of the Dead—"

Kate muttered to herself, quickly drawing upon the information provided by the sage and the vast knowledge base of the undead creature encyclopedia in her mind.

The Heart of the Dead is an extremely rare crystallized core of the undead, containing pure death energy and a faint fragment of undying will.

The wise man's message mentions that in the depths of the Eternal Desolation, among the ruins of some ancient battlefields of the undead, there is an extremely small chance that such a strange object will be born.

The first concrete clue provided by the wise man pointed to an area called "Valley of Bones"—an ancient battlefield ruin of the undead.

There, a squad of about 20 undead knights, led by a level 4 peak undead knight, lingered. All members were at the early level 4.

This team is quite powerful in the outer areas of the Eternal Desolation Wasteland. They seem to be driven by some kind of obsession or instinct, and they are conducting an eternal patrol in the Valley of Bones.

"Level 4 Peak Undead Knights — 20 Level 4 Early Stage Squires —" Kate's eyes were sharp as knives.

Unlike low-level skeletons or zombies, undead knights were often powerful warriors or knights in life. After death, their souls were bound by death energy, retaining some of their combat skills and fierce will from their previous lives.

They typically wear decaying but remarkably protective armor, wield weapons wreathed in necromantic energy, and ride skeletal warhorses enhanced by death energy, making them unstoppable in their charge.

What's more troublesome is that they often possess a certain degree of coordinated combat capability, much like a well-trained army in their lifetime.

The Seed of Origin, combined with the Undead Compendium, rapidly deduces the target's characteristics:

[Target: Undead Knight (Level 4 Peak)]

[characteristic:

1. High physical defense (Undead Bone Armor/Armor), moderate energy resistance (Undead Death Aura).

2. High attack power (undead weapons are affected by death energy), and great charging power (bonus of skeletal warhorses).

3. Core: Soul Fire (located inside the skull), relatively fragile but tightly protected.

4. Weaknesses: Relatively weak resistance to strong light, purifying energy, and mental impact; joints are relatively fragile.

The joints of the mount are prone to damage.

5. Special: May retain some combat skills from their previous life and possess a weak instinct for coordinated combat.

[The Squire Knight (Level 4, early stage) has similar characteristics, but all stats are weakened, and its synergy is lower.]

[Threat Assessment: High. A direct assault carries enormous risk; a strategic approach is required.]

"Skeleton Valley — Ancient Battlefield Ruins —" Kate pondered in her heart.

The battlefield terrain is complex, with possible bunkers, ditches, or dilapidated buildings, which provide him with natural cover and ambush points.

The Undead Knights' patrol routes are relatively fixed, which gives Kate the opportunity to observe and set ambushes.

The key lies in how to divide this team, how to accurately strike the leader's core, and—how to confirm the existence of the Heart of the Dead and seize it.

"Seed of Origin, plan the route to Bone Valley, mark potential ambush points and danger zones," Kate ordered.

Dark golden roots spread through the sea of ​​consciousness, and combined with the rough map provided by the sage and the environmental scan of the Eternal Desolation Wasteland, a relatively safe path was outlined.

At the same time, several coordinate points that were suitable for lying in ambush, had good visibility, and were easy to retreat from were marked.

Kate did not act immediately.

He found a relatively secluded depression formed by huge weathered bones and sat down cross-legged.

He needs to recover some of his mental strength and readjust the state of the Shadow of Thorns.

Eight thorn shadows were released, lurking around like loyal hunting dogs on guard.

He repeatedly considered possible tactics:

They would ambush the knights at narrow valley entrances or amidst ruins, limiting their space to charge.

Use the shadow of thorns to create chaos or lure some of the squires away from the main force.

Concentrate your firepower on the undead knight leader, but you'll need to break through his defenses and the protection of his minions.

The deathly aura of the Eternal Wasteland is the source of power for the undead, but it can also be a source of interference. Is it possible to use the Seed of Origin to guide or create small-scale turbulent flows of deathly aura?

Blood-devouring vines have a natural ability to suppress and devour the death energy of the undead.

If you can successfully entangle and devour the undead knight, you can not only severely damage the target, but also directly plunder its core energy, and may even extract information about the heart of the dead from its dissipating soul fire!

He stood up and gave his equipment a final check: the Shadow Thorn Ring rested coolly on his index finger, his dimensional pouch contained potions, spare magic stones, and several specially made Spirit Core Seeds, and the Thorn Armor gleamed with a restrained metallic sheen under the dead moon.

"Let's go." Kate whispered, her figure blurring under the faint refraction of the Shadow Thorn Ring, like a ghost blending into the gray background, silently stealthily heading towards Bone Valley.

The silence of the Eternal Desolation Wasteland was suffocating. Underfoot lay a thick layer of bone ash, making an extremely faint "rustling" sound as you stepped on it.

Apart from the gray earth and jagged, huge fossilized skeletons, there were almost no other living creatures in sight.

But the Seed of Origin's keen senses told him that beneath this deathly silence lurked countless cold "gazes."

O

Some low-level skeletons and zombies are like part of the environment, half-buried in bone dust. When they sense the presence of living beings, faint soul fire will ignite in their empty eye sockets as they struggle to crawl out, but most of them are slow-moving and pose no threat.

Kate avoided these areas as much as possible, using the terrain and the stealth effect of the Shadow Thorn Ring to move quickly.

Along the way, he encountered several small groups of undead.

A group of vengeful spirits led by a mid-level level 4 "Wailing Banshee" attempted to attack him with a mental shriek, but it was easily dispelled by the powerful mental resistance of the Seed of Origin and the ferocious blood energy of the Blood-Eating Vine. Subsequently, the core soul fire was precisely killed by several Thorn Shadows.

He gained several dozen points.

Several "bone hounds" lurking under the pile of bones launched a surprise attack, but Kate sensed it in advance. The vines wrapped around them and the neurotoxins instantly paralyzed them, and then the Shadow of Thorns finished them off by devouring the death energy.

These battles were small in scale, but they allowed Kate to become more familiar with the rhythm of combat in the Eternal Desolation Wasteland and also verified the effect of the Bloodthirsty Vine in devouring the death energy of the undead. Each successful devouring caused a satisfied throbbing in the vine patterns on her right arm, and her mental sea also received a slight nourishment.

The points on the Vientiane recorder are also slowly increasing.

After trekking for most of the day, a huge outline of a chasm, as if cleaved by a giant axe, appeared on the gray-white horizon ahead—the Valley of Bones.

As you approach the valley entrance, the deathly aura in the air grows even stronger, carrying a rusty, bloody smell and an ancient resentment.

The scattered bone fragments on the ground were even more dense, including the remains of huge creatures, and even some rusted and broken weapons and fragments of broken armor, silently telling the story of the fierce battle that once took place here.

Kate did not rush in.

He climbed to a high point above the valley entrance, formed by huge fossilized wing bones, crouched down, and suppressed his aura to the extreme.

With the Shadowthorn Ring's stealth effect fully activated, he almost blended into the gray-white bone rock.

He cautiously peeked out and looked down.

The interior of the Valley of Bones was more spacious than I had imagined, and the terrain was rugged and uneven.

At the bottom of the valley flows a "river of the underworld" composed of a viscous black liquid that emits a foul stench.

On both sides of the river, there are piles of various skeletons, like small mountains.

In a relatively flat area in the center of the valley, a squad of undead knights was slowly patrolling.

The leading undead knight was exceptionally tall.

He rode a skeletal warhorse covered in broken bone armor, its eye sockets burning with eerie green flames.

The knight himself wore a set of dark plate armor covered with sword marks and arrow holes, but still showing the exquisite craftsmanship of the past. The two eerie blue flames under his helmet were more refined and profound than those of his squires behind him, exuding a cold majesty.

He held a massive two-handed greatsword in his hand, shrouded in a thick aura of death, its blade seemingly wail silently from countless vengeful spirits.

Behind him, twenty squires stood in a relatively loose formation.

These squire knights were slightly smaller in size, their armor was more tattered, their soul fire was pale green, and their weapons were mostly spears or one-handed swords.

Their skeletal warhorses also did not appear very large.

The entire group exuded an aura of solemnity, coldness, and death, like an army of the dead returning from hell.

They moved slowly along a fixed route between several huge piles of bones and broken stone altars in the center of the valley, their movements uniform and disciplined to the bone.

"It's them—" Kate held her breath, her Seed of Origin operating at full power, like the most sophisticated scanner, analyzing every detail of the target.

The knight leader's energy fluctuations had indeed reached the peak of level 4, with death energy condensed to the point of being tangible. In particular, the two points of ghostly blue soul fire under his helmet exuded a chilling sense of oppression.

The squire's energy level is stable at the early stage of level 4.

The team's route was indeed relatively fixed, patrolling in a circle around several central landmarks.

Kate's sharp gaze swept over the junction of the knight leader's breastplate and helmet, trying to find any possible weaknesses or gaps.

At the same time, he also noticed that in the central area of ​​the team's patrol route, near a half-collapsed altar base built of black boulders, the ground seemed somewhat unusual—the bone powder there was a darker color, and there were faint, extremely weak, heartbeat-like energy fluctuations emanating from it, which were out of place with the deathly aura surrounding it, and had a strange sense of "condensation".

[A faint but highly condensed fluctuation of the essence of death has been detected — Location: Three meters underground, northeast of the altar base — Suspected — Area containing residual or associated energy of the Heart of the Dead!]

The hint from the Seed of Origin made Kate's heart skip a beat!

The wise man's information was correct! The heart of the dead is very likely there!

Or at least, that's the key location for its gestation or storage!

The knight leader's patrol route seemed to intentionally or unintentionally include that area within his protection zone!

Target confirmed, location locked.