Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

“It’s rare to see you like this,” von Dahl raised an eyebrow. “Where did you get the courage to recklessly fight the cultists all by yourself back then?”

“That’s a completely different matter!” the poet protested. “Cultists are still living people, what’s there to be afraid of—who knows what kind of creatures are in there!”

“Of course it’s Joachim and his family—it’s clearly written on the door,” Raslaufer said, brandishing his sword and cautiously walking forward. “Sistine or Rosso, you two come with me. I hope you’re skilled enough to spot any potential traps.”

Even mercenaries have their limits when it comes to interpersonal relationships, and even someone like Raslaufer is no exception. Among his acquaintances, there are very few skilled individuals familiar with tombs—after all, battles between two lords usually don't take place in such locations.

He had no choice but to trust the abilities of the two spotted cat people.

Sistine and Rosso did not disappoint. They laid more than a dozen traps of various sizes in the not-so-long passageway. About half of them failed, and the vast majority of the rest were discovered and deactivated by the siblings in advance. Only four fire-breathing vents hidden at the end of the passageway really caught everyone off guard. Fortunately, thanks to Raslaufer's excellent skills, they managed to shut them up before the situation got worse.

"Magic-driven, solid materials, no wonder it's still intact."

Bella cautiously stepped forward, poked the fire-breathing pipes that had been deformed and bent by the bombardment of the battle swords with an oak stick, and then pulled them out to examine them: "If it were an ordinary tomb raider, he would probably be burned to a crisp in this level no matter what."

“But if this Jogi doesn’t want to be disturbed, he just needs to leave no key,” Angelita pondered, looking down. “Even disregarding the hag, that stone gate and the gargoyles outside are enough to convince most people to stop. The so-called brooch now seems completely unnecessary. It’s like…”

“Schizophrenia,” Daisy interjected. “It’s impossible to tell whether he even wants anyone in.”

"And I don't know if you've noticed, but it says 'Georgie the Childless' outside. He had no children. So, who was that brooch for?"

Instinctively, the bard's gaze fell upon the old hag, who was now just a skull. But the old hag clearly hadn't received the gift; otherwise, with her hiding there, it wouldn't have been easy for the Nightingale Granny to catch her.

“No,” Leslaufer frowned. “The Popazobote family continued to exist after changing their surname, the Popenos family, remember?”

Chapter 297 A Hundred Coffins Display

“Perhaps it was a collateral branch,” Angelita made a judgment. “Only this Jochi died out. As a relatively prominent family, there should be other branches that still exist. ‘Popenos’ is the name of that branch. Popazobote himself disappeared from history with his death.”

The old hag remained noncommittal, and the spotted cat people knew little more, leaving everyone to speculate. After passing through the passageway, a large hall appeared before them. Two guardian golems, bearing a striking resemblance to the one the Nightingale Granny once commanded, stood on either side of the entrance. However, like that one, they now required manual operation; unless someone added potions according to a specific logic, they were merely decorations.

Such a waste of resources was heartbreaking, so the dwarves immediately rushed over and collected all the valuable metals that could still be recycled, so that they would not be left to gather dust here.

“Nightingale’s golem is a bit rougher than these two,” von Dahl concluded after a moment. “Did this guy find some kind of adamantite mine? He’s made so many golems in one go!”

“His focus wasn’t limited to this world itself,” the witch explained. “For a time, he was obsessed with traveling to other planes or demiplanes, and these adamantite pieces were what he acquired during that time.”

Sometimes there is little difference between worlds and planes, and sometimes there is a huge difference. Perhaps the spellcaster who buried himself here once found a plane rich in adamantium, or a meteorite with adamantium as its core.

In any case, they all now benefited von Dahl Halfhill, and the dwarf was extremely pleased with them.

“It would be such a waste to let these things gather dust!” he defended himself. “I can bring them back to life in better condition, of course I can do it!”

With that, Vondar quickly climbed down a golem and ran towards the gate ahead: "Let's see what's inside. Hopefully, it'll be a square formation of hundreds of adamantite golems!"

“I’m not sure if that’s true, you’d loot them one by one or turn around and run…” Mary followed behind, peering over Von Dahl’s head. “Alright, now I think we’d better start running!”

As the door swung open with a loud thud, what came into view was not a mithril golem, but rather rows and rows of heavy stone coffins neatly arranged throughout the hall!

But if it were just stone coffins, it wouldn't be enough to shock everyone. What truly sent a chill down their spines and up to the top of their heads was that, without exception, the lids of every single stone coffin had been opened and were scattered on the cold ground!

Bella immediately transformed into a giant bat, hovering in the air above the hall before landing back on the ground, her face pale.

“It’s all empty!” She licked her lips nervously. “But I’m 100 percent certain that there was something in there—at least when it was first placed here!”

"Undead creatures?" Sistine quickly prepared her weapons. "Hopefully they're skeletons or zombies; shadows or something like that would be terrible!"

Enchanted weapons are rare, and even when they are sold, they are often very expensive, beyond the reach of rangers like them. Ordinary attacks are usually ineffective against ghosts that lack physical form.

“It shouldn’t be, I can’t sense the presence of ghosts,” the witch’s head couldn’t make any expression, but her tone didn’t seem particularly tense. “However, there is definitely the aura of an undead creature… I need to get closer and take a look, otherwise I can’t make an accurate judgment.”

Leslaufer glanced at the white bones and finally decided to go in and take a look—it would be a shame to leave now that they had come this far.

As Bella saw, the sarcophagi were all empty, with only dust and some fragments of cloth that had not yet dissipated. It was clear that they had once been used to hold something—most likely a corpse.

“There are writings on it,” Mary said, her sharp eyes quickly noticing the inscriptions on the inside of the sarcophagus. “My cousin William… Popazobote, Light… Light Wall spell, a… hand mirror?”

The wear and tear wasn't particularly severe, and Mary could easily read every letter, but this did nothing to help her understand it. The more she read, the more confused she became, just like everyone else.

The old woman remained completely silent, not uttering a sound even when asked questions.

“The Light Wall spell, and behind it are the materials needed to cast the spell,” Daisy explained after a moment of silence. “It summons a wall of light, and anyone enveloped by the wall or struck by the beams will be blinded and suffer from the impact of light magic.”

“It’s here too,” Rosso said, walking to another sarcophagus. “Uncle Brook Popazobote, Whirlwind, Straw…”

In Daisy's claimed system, Whirlwind is already considered a seventh-circle spell, two circles higher than Light Wall. Regardless of the true meaning of these words, simply being able to accurately write down the actions, incantations, and materials required for these spells is already quite remarkable.

This at least indicates that the childless Joki had the means to acquire and learn these spells, and he might actually have mastered these advanced spells.

“But then again, what does all this really mean?” Leslaufer tapped the edge of the sarcophagus. “If I were a mage, I would write them down on a stone tablet, but I wouldn’t carve them inside the coffin.”

“You’re focusing on the wrong thing… Uncle Leslaufer,” Angelita glanced at the mercenary helplessly. “It’s not about whether it’s heavy or not. The point is, if he wanted to memorize these spells, why would he put a family member’s name in front of them? The first one is probably the kinship between the corpse in the sarcophagus and Joki himself.”

"If these are for recording whose remains are placed in each one, then why leave behind a series of spell casting instructions?"

Even among spellcasters known for their eccentric behavior, Joki's actions were rather bizarre.

“Let me add something, Anne,” Mary said, looking at the sarcophagi over and over again, “we all agree that the Popazobote family wasn’t a particularly large or prosperous one, but if each of these sarcophagi corresponds to a member…”

“I’m afraid all of Popazobates were lying here back then—before Jochi.”

Chapter 298 The Bloodline of the Warlock

“Then he shouldn’t be called the one who has no heir, but the one who has no descendants…” Daisy rolled her eyes, but the next moment, she understood what Mary meant. “You mean to say that Joachim wiped out his entire family?!”

“I don’t know,” Mary shook her head, “but otherwise, why would this happen? Normally, it’s unlikely that a family would die at the same time, or even close to the same time. If that’s the case, would Joachim have had the leisure to dig up every single one of his relatives and move them here before he died?”

What's the point of him doing this? Is he afraid of being lonely?

“If it were just to be buried with his wife or other important relatives, that would be understandable, but this…” Bella looked at the first stone coffin, “Cousins? Isn’t this a bit too far away?”

Those with more distant blood relations generally don't have the surname Popazobote.

"In the northwest corner."

The old hag, who claimed to have heard every letter of Joachim's method of deciphering the prophecy, suddenly spoke again after pretending to be deaf and dumb.

"What did you say?" The crowd hadn't misheard, but they just didn't understand the meaning.

“Joki’s in the northwest corner,” the witch repeated. “Let’s go quietly, take a look, and then leave.”

“Why? What do you know?” Mary frowned, holding up the skull in her hand. “Tell us everything, or how can we trust you?!”

"You're a witch! How do we know these sudden words aren't a trap?"

“I told you, I don’t know… never mind,” the old hag finally chose to confess rather than smash herself against the edge of the stone coffin. “Since you all insist on knowing, then listen to it here. When you go to the northwest corner, don’t make a sound, or we’ll all be finished.”

“Go on,” Leslaufer said casually, sitting on one corner of a sarcophagus. “If we find out you’re not telling the whole truth, you won’t ‘live’ until the northwest corner.”

“Deceiving you will not bring me any benefit, especially in this worst-case scenario.”

Within the witch's skull, the will-o'-the-wisp flickered and trembled, as if afraid of something, or perhaps reminiscing: "To explain all this, you must first understand one thing: Do you know what makes a 'sorcerer' different among various spellcasters?"

“I know that!” Daisy raised her hand. “A sorcerer’s power is often innate. They don’t need to specifically learn magic. The key is to master how to control magical power!”

"Not bad. So how did they acquire this talent? Was it innate?"

Angelita answered, "Not necessarily. Gifts from the gods, blessings or curses from powerful beings, the bloodline of great mages, or even some natural phenomenon can grant someone who originally had no talent the ability to cast spells. However, in the mouths of bards, the reasons are usually..."

"Sleep!" Daisy immediately answered enthusiastically, "With dragons, with gods, with demons, devils, elemental lords, basically, someone in my ancestry slept with someone!"

"This Joki is the same... Wait, could it be you?"

Fortunately, this hag has now been reduced to nothing more than a skull, otherwise Daisy would have given her a real dressing down: "That's not true! The magical talent of the Popazobote family is another reason mentioned: a curse, or a blessing."

"Some sorcerers' talents are unique to themselves, while others are passed down through their bloodline. However, the latter also have differences: some are like some kind of hidden physical characteristics, such as the black-haired descendants in a blond family, which only appear in certain individuals; others are that every family member possesses this talent, which creates some sorcerer families."

“But Popazobote shouldn’t be, right?” Angelita pondered for a moment. “Sorcerer families are rarely forgotten, and even those hermits who hide away are at least known to people—to me.”

It's unlikely that the Empire would serve a warlock family so far away in Inathas, but it's not too difficult to know of their existence.

"No, they are, but as I said, this power is both a blessing and a curse."

The old hag softened her voice: "The sorcerer Chargiji, after he had a series of love-hate relationships with a real fairy, the Twilight Court of the Fairy Wilderness rewarded him, granting him and all his people the power of magic."

"However, this power is very...dispersed. The Popazobote family had many members at the time, and Chargigi only obtained a little bit, like the power of a juggler, which can light a cigarette or provide light, nothing more."

"But by chance, in an accident, Chargigi accidentally killed one of his own kind. At that moment, he discovered that his strength had almost doubled. So if he wanted to become stronger, there was only one way."

"So..." The crowd exchanged bewildered glances, recalling the demon's infamous deeds, and it seemed everything became clear. "So, after Emperor Richard killed his father, he actually became the emperor's supporter!"

"That's why he's so eager to instigate massacres in his own homeland! The fewer his people there are, the stronger he becomes!"

“However, Chargigi didn’t actually tell anyone else this secret, including his own children,” the old hag hummed in agreement, confirming these ideas. “In his view, the family must continue, and he didn’t want to be killed by his descendants. So for many years after his death, his descendants didn’t understand the mystery. Their magic grew weaker and weaker, which they attributed to the gradual dilution of their ancestor’s bloodline, until—Joki discovered this.”

"He discovered his ancestors' secret and immediately set about purging his family again. But he craved power more than Chargigi. Family was irrelevant to him. He didn't want any descendants to take it all away. That's how he got the title 'the one who will die without an heir'."

“But mortals will eventually die,” Bella couldn’t help but interject. “That’s the law of nature, unless he can live forever.”

It is obvious that he failed.

“Not doing it doesn’t mean he didn’t do it,” the witch said, shaking her jaw. “He could have chosen to live forever as a lich, but he didn’t want that. He wanted a narrower kind of immortality, but the blessings of the fairy wilderness were far from enough for him to become a great being like a god in mortal time. So he chose another way: he found the prophecy of Chargigi from back then, the one about the dragon.”

"True dragons have extremely long lifespans, and can even 'live' for a long time after death. He wanted to use this to fulfill his wish, and how to get close to a powerful enough dragon and acquire the relevant knowledge or even the power itself was his own 'counter-prophecy'."

“So you’ve deceived us,” Leslaufer scoffed. “That’s not what you said before.”

"I didn't know the specific details of his plan before!" The old hag let out a sharp, explosive sound, then quickly lowered her voice in fear. "He sealed himself in the tomb, and I thought he had failed. So of course I can use this to persuade you to resurrect myself!"

"But now... anyway, take me to the northwest corner for a look. His plan probably hasn't been fully successful yet. Let's have a look together, without disturbing any half-finished monsters, and then we can sneak away quietly."

Chapter 299 The Cocoon of Flesh and Blood

The northwest corner—this is a somewhat ambiguous direction. The hall, capable of holding a hundred or so stone coffins, is quite large, not to mention the various rooms surrounding it. While the northwest room is small, it still has three or four doors.

“This way.” The witch had Mary stop at the second door from the left, indicating that this was the place where Joachi was preparing to resurrect himself and live forever.

The door was locked, but for Mary, an old lock in an ancient tomb was not a particularly difficult mechanism to crack, and soon the scene inside appeared before everyone.

A strong, rusty smell that had been lingering for years wafted over, even more unpleasant than ordinary stench.

"This is……"

Angelita instinctively covered her mouth and nose, but couldn't help opening her mouth wide and staring into the distance. In this space, traces of piled-up flesh and blood could be seen everywhere.

They seemed untouched by time, fresh as if they had just been cut from their own flesh the night before. In some places, however, the flesh appeared slightly older, with strange white threads, or rather, hairs, growing from their surfaces and extending deeper into the flesh, seemingly destined to converge at some point.

"These look like spider silk... Will we be detected?"

As Bella spoke, the white fur nearby trembled slightly, but it wasn't her fault—the fur had already reacted when they came in.

“No,” the ghostly fire in the old woman’s eyes shrank to the size of two pinheads, it was unclear how this would help her. “It seems he hasn’t finished using his ‘temporary’ body yet. Even if he succeeds completely, he will need to hibernate for a long time, and we will be safe by then.”

"As for his true form, walk forward. Do you see those two earthenware urns on the ground? Get to that area, then look up."

Everyone simultaneously looked up at the spot designated by the witch, gazing diagonally upwards as she indicated. For a moment, almost everyone held their breath.

There, a gigantic cocoon of flesh and bone hung silently, its shape ellipsoidal. Its surface was covered with white silk threads, like a web woven by some giant spider, holding the entire cocoon firmly in place. Bella mustered her courage and raised her torch, but the cocoon's walls were thick, obscuring what lay within.

However, seemingly sensing the stimulation of the light, accompanied by a rather loud "gurgling" sound, the huge cocoon-like object, and even the entire room, trembled!

"Put the torch down!" the witch shouted hastily, but even if she hadn't spoken, Bella wouldn't have dared to continue shining the torch on the thing.

“What if we destroy it now?” Leslaufer couldn’t help but ask. “This thing looks like it’s afraid of fire, or maybe I could split it in two…”

“Your strength is as great as your courage, soldier, but I advise you not to do this,” the witch’s voice was quite serious. “When I said he ‘hasn’t succeeded yet,’ I meant that he hasn’t fully formed his form yet, nor can he freely break out of this cocoon. If you destroy this outer membrane, you will actually help him.”

"I bet you wouldn't want to face a lump of flesh and mud the size of this cocoon, with no fixed shape, and therefore almost impossible to kill."

“Judging from this description, we’ve probably already fought one,” Daisy blinked. “And Old Lei was also a key player.”

"You mean Flesh Fusion? That's completely different from this. The difference between them is like that between gnolls and the demon lord Yenogu who controls them. Are you prepared to face a Flesh Fusion that can cast the magic on the outer sarcophagus?"

The Fifth Ring Road, or even the Seventh Ring Road? Raslaw turned to look at Daisy, who grinned and shook her head slightly.

No matter how strong Doples was, he couldn't possibly withstand that kind of magic and kill an undead and amorphous creature that was known for being difficult to kill in a short time. As the team's main spellcaster, Daisy was far from being able to handle that level of magic—unless she was prepared to give up her soul at any time.

“Then let us leave. Joki’s attention is usually focused on the vast astral plane. To ordinary people who do not belong to the Popazobote family, he is as safe as a worm deep underground.”

The witch's suggestion was agreed upon by everyone, but just as they were slowly retreating, a loud echo shook their hearing.

"What's that noise?" "It's outside—"

"Rumble—" Another tremor of unknown origin made it impossible for everyone to move slowly and peacefully. Led by Raslaufer, several people quickly retreated from the cocoon of flesh and blood, closed the door behind them, and hid inside or behind the stone coffins. They extinguished their torches and nervously watched the situation outside the door.

Black smoke enveloped the world outside the stone gate, and even the dwarves with dark vision could not see what was happening outside. Only the intense magical fluctuations made everyone's heart clench.

"Are all the gargoyles fighting this fiercely?" Mary asked quietly, shrinking into a stone coffin on the edge of the wall. The old woman beside her, whose will-o'-the-wisp had been extinguished, was also there.

“Not gargoyles, or at least not entirely them—don’t be afraid, I’ve established a mental connection with you, we can communicate without speaking.” The witch’s voice echoed in Mary’s mind. “Gargoyles tend to fight with their tough bodies, some can use poison, and very few can use magic, at least none of the ones outside can.”

Even the one with four arms?