Witch Troupe and the Undead

What? Hands-on teaching? You'd probably have to be the mentor's illegitimate child or someone so talented that they'd be chosen as his heir.

Chapter Twenty-One: Undead Attack

As spellcasters and scholars, Roach and Livia were assigned a separate tent. The tent wasn't very big, and he thought he would have to squeeze in with the little witch. But when he lifted the curtain, he found that the space inside the small tent was much larger than it appeared from the outside. It wasn't quite a mansion, but it could be divided into two separate rooms, separated by a curtain.

It seems the quartermaster didn't consider that when people of the opposite sex live here, the protective capabilities of the curtains are probably only slightly better than underwear. Perhaps he thought that since both parties are spellcasters who have mastered alchemy or arcane magic, it would be easy to release simple barriers or defensive spells on the curtains.

After entering the tent, Livia took off her hat and untied her cloak. Her face was slightly flushed, probably because she had just been giving a lesson by the fire. Her light golden hair did not look sticky at all despite being kept inside the hat for so long, although the strands were a bit messy.

Livia opened her suitcase, and a wooden comb and a hand mirror eagerly jumped out of the package and began to comb her hair automatically. As if sensing Roach's presence, a wooden bowl and spoon inside the package also jumped out and went straight for Roach. The wooden bowl landed in his hand, while the spoon hit him on the head before it landed.

"Sigh~ do I get a promotion or a new side job...?" Roach sighed, picked up Livia's wooden bowl and his own bowl, and lifted the tent flap again. The quartermaster was distributing food to the soldiers and adventurers. When he saw Roach coming over, he gestured for him to go to the officers' dining area, which was supported by four wooden slats and a cloth curtain, to get his food.

Ordinary soldiers and adventurers ate at the combat stove, conscripted serfs and militia ate at the conscript stove or ordinary stove, and spellcasters, scholars and knights ate at the officer stove; the three dining areas were clearly separated.

Roach glanced at the soldiers' rations as he passed by. The soldiers' rations included two pieces of dry bread toasted over a fire, a large bowl of soup made with carrots, potato-like tubers, and cured meat, a small bowl of pickled vegetables, and the adventurers, perhaps because of their strength, received an extra handful of nuts.

As for those ordinary stoves, they were made of hard biscuits made with bran and flour, porridge made from beans and leftover horse feed, plus a bowl of clear soup made from vegetable leaves. Judging from the grimacing expressions of the diners, the taste must not have been very pleasant, and it might even have been worse than what the horses ate, because the horse feed they ate was damp and the horse herders dared not feed it to their warhorses, so they fed it to people.

Roach walked through the crowded soldiers' dining area and came to the officers' mess hall, where there were far fewer people. Only officers of the rank of company commander and above, as well as the knights, were eating there. Of course, the esoteric mage who had been taking lessons with Livia was also there.

Upon seeing Roach arrive, the mages promptly stood up and made way for him. Roach waved his hands repeatedly, indicating that he was only there to get food and did not intend to eat there. Only then did he manage to escape from the mages who were so enthusiastic that they were practically fawning over him. Of course, he understood what they were thinking. Having finally found a lecturer of a high enough level, they naturally wanted to curry favor with her companions.

Furthermore, they learned from the knights that Roach was an alchemist. Although they didn't know his specialty or level, since he was traveling with Livia, his skill level should be similar.

The Alchemy Society is no less prestigious than the Ritual Society. Moreover, of the Alchemy Society's five branches, apart from the Construct Masters who mainly deal with the military and the nation and have little to do with them, the remaining four branches—Potion Masters, Magic Tool Masters, Creation Masters, and Refining Masters—are all closely related to Ritual Masters. In fact, many high-level Ritual Masters themselves study one or two of these subjects. If they really relied entirely on buying things with money, their average economic situation would probably be "dirt poor."

Therefore, Roach himself was quite prestigious among these spellcasters. However, when Morna heard that Roach was an alchemist, her expression was as if she had seen an ogre wearing small round glasses doing problems in a library, making it unclear whether she had gone to the wrong place or it had gone to the wrong place.

"Mr. Roach, isn't Miss Livia coming out for dinner?"

“She needs some personal time, you know,” Roach shrugged, then placed the wooden bowl on the table. The food in the officers' mess wasn’t actually that different from that in the combat mess; the staple was still black bread, just with some nuts added, like the adventurers’.

The soup contained more cured meat, and there was more onion and ginger than the regular soldiers had, making it more fragrant. In addition, there was an extra bowl of cheese and a few pieces of roast meat, not much, but seasoned with sesame and fine salt.

Roach observed that the roast meat was a special treat for knights and spellcasters; ordinary officers didn't get it. He sighed again, thinking that spellcasters were truly the masters of the kitchen knife profession in every sense of the word.

However, it's not entirely incomprehensible when you think about it. As long as the cleaver profession doesn't involve extraordinary martial arts like those of knights, basically anyone can train it as long as they're physically healthy. But spellcasters... well, that requires talent, money, and opportunity.

First, you need talent. Someone like Roach has absolutely no talent for arcane arts. If he really wanted to learn, he could, but his instructor would ask for extra money. Moreover, his achievements would be limited. In Livia's opinion, this stupid magical pet would never be able to learn arcane spells of intermediate or higher difficulty.

Secondly, you need money. Just look at how much Roach spent on materials and tools, and what currency he used to buy them, and you'll know how much it cost. Most esoteric apprentices borrow everything except for pens, ink, and books, rent if they can't borrow, and only buy if absolutely necessary.

Finally, there's the matter of opportunity. You need to find a teacher who's willing to teach you. The entry requirements for those esoteric societies are quite high, and... esoteric masters also have sons or daughters, so the number of students they recruit is even smaller.

In short, the number of spellcasters is not large, and the growth rate is slow. Few forces would use them as cannon fodder. Even for the Empire, cultivating a large number of spellcasters would be somewhat of a burden.

"Ah, I understand, I understand." The quartermaster produced a bottle of milk from somewhere and handed it to Roach. "This is for Miss Livia. Don't worry, this is a special treatment."

The mages nodded slightly at Roach when they saw this, not finding anything amiss. After all, Livia was indeed the highest-ranking arcane mage among them, and she was willing to give public lectures at a relatively low price—it was just that the topics she was discussing were a bit too advanced.

She seemed to judge normal mages by her own talent and skill level, skipping over many details. Roach's impression of the parts he could understand was that others would say: "This is the accelerator, this is the brake, this is the steering wheel, now drive in a straight line." But Livia would say: "This is the lever, this is the level, this is the accelerator, now, please perform the Pugachev's Cobra maneuver."

Yes, she even skipped the "car" level and went straight to the level of piloting fighter jets. Perhaps in her view, the car level is something that "anyone with hands can do."

After observing the magic and arcane spells that Livia usually used, Roach concluded that perhaps for her, all you need is hands; the fact that she was even willing to start by teaching what a lever and a level were was already very pragmatic.

These esoteric masters were engaged in a heated discussion about how to sense the flow of the life source, how to determine their choice to resonate with the life source, and how to safely extract life force.

Livia talked about how to freely manipulate the life source and the source of life force, how to force the other party to contribute their life force, and how to put the remaining part back after using it up, among other advanced techniques.

Roach felt that the reason they were listening to Livia's lectures was simply because they were paying for emotional support for the little witch. Without considering the context, he might even mistakenly think that these people were the little witch's sycophants.

Well, of course, it can't be said that they gained nothing. At the very least, they can take these notes back and exchange them with their teachers for some courses suitable for their level—provided that their tutors choose to be human.

Roach stopped observing the mages' discussion and returned to the tent with a wooden bowl full of food. The little girl had already set up a small dining table, with spoons and forks laid out, ready to eat. To be honest, the food provided by the military camp was mediocre, but Livia, who had suffered from Roach's terrible cooking skills, ate very happily.

It is evident that her original mentor's culinary skills did not even qualify as "dark cuisine," which is considered harmful to human infants; they could only be described as "cruel" or "abuse."

Although the black bread had been roasted over the campfire, it was still sour and difficult to swallow; the marinated meat in the thick soup was too strong, and even with the addition of plenty of ginger and onions, the smell was still not quite masked; the dry cheese was a bit rancid; the roast meat was the only commendable part of the meal, but it was only mediocre.

Despite the poor quality of the food, the little witch ate it all up, even licking the rim of the bowl clean with her pink little tongue. "Actually... never mind, we'll talk about it another time," Luo Qi said hesitantly.

The main reason was that the city of Hearth was probably not in good condition, and the food in this world was, to put it mildly, terrible. However, he still decided that if he had the chance, he would take the girl to eat something normal.

After dinner, it's almost time to sleep. No one would ask a mage to keep watch at night. Even though this world doesn't have the setting of needing 8 hours of good sleep to replenish magic, being mentally sharp is still an important resource for mages. After all, with magic spells, if you're not focused, you might make a mistake, just like what happened to Roach before, where he and his companions were blown away with a bang.

"Hurry up, bring the spear stand over here!"

"Torch, light all the torches."

"Hmm?" Roach opened his eyes. Outside the tent, there were figures running back and forth. He lifted the tent flap and found that the camp was not exactly in chaos, but it was also a bit chaotic.

Roach and his men were located in the center of the camp, with the outermost layer being a wall made of trenches and spears, followed by a circle of vehicles, and finally Roach's tents.

"What's going on?"

"Undead attack, a small group of undead monsters. Don't worry, this kind of thing is common." It's normal for small groups of undead monsters to deviate from their original paths and appear behind you for various reasons. Usually, there aren't many of these undead, and the veterans and knights all seemed very calm.

As more torches were lit and thrown outside the camp, Roach saw the approaching undead creatures by their light. There were about twenty or thirty of them, mainly rotting corpses, and a few withered walkers wearing tattered armor. He didn't see any classic skeletons.

"These rotting corpses are affected by the magic of death. Judging from their attire, they should be residents of villages around the Deathwhisper Fortress." After being corrupted by magic, these corpses turned into these low-level rotting corpses, roughly equivalent to ferocious monsters.

“Those zombies are transformed from the remains of soldiers who died in battle. Judging from this, the cemetery between Hearthglen and Deathwhisper Fortress has also fallen, hasn’t it?” Morna said gravely. “This is a serious problem.”

"What do you mean?" Roach's ears twitched as he looked at Morna, whose face was extremely grim. "There is a cemetery between Hearthstone and Deathwhisper Fortress. It was originally used to bury the soldiers who died in the Battle of Luster Plains, as well as those who died in Deathwhisper Fortress. Later, due to the expansion of the Abyss, some of the graves and remains were moved to the cemetery in Hearthstone."

"But only for nobles and knights, right?"

“And some officers…” Morna bit her lower lip, “especially those who died earlier. Nobody ever bothers to count how many people are buried in those layers upon layers of graves, and these skeletons…”

They were all soldiers, including many officers. In other words, for the undead, they were a large, high-quality, additional source of manpower. Compared to the rotting corpses transformed from the villagers who had died.

These withered zombies are all standard dangerous-level monsters, while the officers and the nameless knights who failed to evacuate and turned into zombie warriors or death knights are basically threat-level, and some are even disaster-level.

As for the corpse demons, skeleton warriors, and banshees below the Black Abyss, these are considered terrifying creatures and generally don't appear on the surface. This is because sunlight has a certain killing power or effect on them. Conversely, the sun has a negligible effect on low-level undead monsters. In a sense, this is also why dangerous areas generally don't expand rapidly.

"Prepare the fire arrows!" The ritual masters were also awakened. They raised their hands and used bells, staffs and incense to outline the complex ritual structure. They drew power from the surrounding elemental mediums with their own spirituality. The light of the extra campfires and torches dimmed and the flames gradually drooped. This meant that the "fire element" in the flames was being continuously drawn out and eventually gathered in the ritual.

As a thin layer of red mist rose, the arrows in the soldiers' hands were coated with a layer of flowing fire mist. Each arrow would explode into a small ball of flame after hitting the rotting corpse. To be honest, Roach couldn't see any difference in power from ordinary arrows. It was probably equivalent to the destructive power of "fire arrows".

However, for the rotting corpses, the fat and corpse oil in the bloated bodies were quickly ignited under the constant attack of fire arrows, turning them into blazing human-shaped torches. The increase in human-shaped torches also allowed the occultists to extract more fire elements.

The thin layer of fire mist on the arrow gradually thickened, eventually turning into a raging fire, further amplifying the firepower advantage of the human side.

"So this is how arcane magic is used." It was a bit different from how he had imagined magic to be used. After all, arcane mages don't have their own mana bars. The elements or magic they can use come from the external environment. Therefore, the focus of arcane mages' research is to leverage as many resources as possible to release spells with a wider range and greater power using limited initial resources.

It is also the knowledge contained in various esoteric texts. The specific spell forms are not actually that precious in this world. Theoretically speaking, as long as you can draw enough fire element and control it effectively, even an apprentice can create a living fire melting city.

These occult mages showed no signs of fatigue, which made Roach realize that their spellcasting was the same as the Little Witch's—they had no or very little cost to themselves. The unusually weak flames on the battlefield and in the camp made him understand where their "mana bars" came from.

Manipulating flames to ignite enemies or environmental objects, drawing more flame power to ignite even more enemies and objects—this is the basic cycle of the "Flame Ritual".

Given enough mages and enough time, they can gradually accumulate advantages, just like the Little Witch did in Windcandle Village, using waves of fire to destroy the enemy.

From this, Roach understood why a group of apprentice-level occultists would receive such preferential treatment—they really were a bunch of human cannons or human reactors.

Chapter Twenty-Two: My Young Master Can Do Alchemy (Livia's Perspective)

In the morning light, the area outside the camp was littered with charred corpses and ashes from burned vegetation. Conscripted peasant soldiers and adventurers rummaged through the corpses, collecting them and throwing them into a makeshift crematorium set up inside the camp, where a cryptic mage burned them to ashes.

“This is your share,” Morna said, bringing over a large bag of ashes and tossing it in front of Roach. “Although we didn’t participate in the battle yesterday, that’s the rule. As alchemists, we are entitled to 25% of the spoils and half of the alchemical materials under any circumstances. At least that’s the rule in the Empire.”

After all, most alchemists are logistics personnel. Their absence from the battlefield does not mean they have no contribution. Therefore, as compensation for these rare and valuable technical talents, they can directly receive 25% of the spoils and 50% of the material income in any situation as long as they participate in military operations.

The remaining 50% of the materials were divided equally: half went to the occultists, and the other half was collected by the Imperial Army's logistics officers and sold to factories and alchemy workshops within the Empire.

"Ashes?" Roach touched the still-hot ashes. It wasn't that he couldn't understand that this stuff could be used as an alchemical material, but with his meager knowledge of secret sources, he couldn't think of anything that needed to be refined from ashes. Could it be the secret source of death or the secret source of the soul?

“Yes, if you don’t need it, I’ll give you 20 copper coins, and you can keep it.” Morna didn’t seem to be joking.

What are you planning to do with it?

“To make anti-magic coatings, of course!” Morna said matter-of-factly. “Oh, I forgot, you’re not a refiner, so you really don’t need it.”

Cremated remains can be used as a base material for anti-magic coatings. The source of these remains can be any living organism, including livestock. Morna usually buys pig bones from butchers to make the ash base material.

"I really don't need it." To be precise, it is useful; it can be used to extract the essence of the dead, but such a thing is an illegal product in most countries of the civilized world.

In alchemy, death essence is used to create various dangerous plague poisons and curse elixirs. For arcane sorcerers, it is more often used to create soul arcane paradigms and as an easily obtainable essence fuel.

"By the way, do you need these materials?" Besides the ashes, Morna brought some strange things, such as brain matter and residual tissue from the corpse. Roach's face turned pale at the sight of this pile of stuff. "Sorry, I'm mainly focusing on elemental materials."

"Okay, that works too. I happen to have some relevant materials here, so we can exchange them."

Corpse brains can be used to extract spiritual essence, and the residue of rotting corpses can be used to make rune pigments. For alchemists, dealing with all sorts of strange and unusual materials is commonplace. Even something more indescribable like this has been used by Morna.

The Refiner is an important branch of alchemy, but few people specialize in it. Most alchemists only study it as a sideline. The characteristic of this branch of profession can be summed up in one sentence: turning waste into treasure.

The process involves refining and processing the remains of monsters and various seemingly useless things to obtain alchemical materials, or purifying contaminated things. However, this inevitably involves dealing with all sorts of dirty, smelly, and messy things.

"Why did you choose this branch?" The Mystic Arts are formed by combining other branches of alchemy with the Refiner as the core, plus the Mystic Arts, and even some of the Church's miracle arts. Therefore, Roach has some knowledge of the five branches of alchemy.

"Because it's a quick way to make money."

The biggest drawback of alchemists is that their daily lives are similar to those of wizards in a loving father's house. Their biggest advantage is that they make money quickly. Most of their raw materials are worthless, while alchemical materials that have been processed and refined are not cheap.

For example, few alchemists would dare to extract the essence from a corpse's brain, but for a refiner, the amount of essence they could extract from these dried-up brains represented their skill level.

Morna acquired all of these discarded corpse brains for a small fee. She estimated that after refining and processing, she could extract about 2 to 4 units of spiritual essence, which was a strategic resource that could be used to create spiritual potions for spiritual ritual mages to cast large-scale strategic spells.

The official purchase price is 7 silver coins per unit, while the black market price is generally around 8 to 9 silver coins, depending on the type of currency and the exchange rate, with a fluctuation of about 25% up or down.

"You have a channel?" Roach immediately realized that this money-making channel was indeed good and asked right away.

"Wait, aren't you a creator?" Morna wasn't surprised that Roach knew some refining techniques, but the problem was that most alchemists only practiced a little bit of it.

After all, buying all the materials from the market is a bit expensive, and, just like when Roach blew himself up before—without also being a refiner, one will lack sufficient understanding of various materials and resources.

Buying phospholipids and getting magic cores instead is a disaster for our company; buying magic cores and getting phospholipids instead is a recipe for disaster. Even if it's just to avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous merchants, all alchemists need to learn the relevant knowledge, but they won't actually operate or learn to process those cheap materials like professional alchemists.

“I know a little bit about it too. If you’re going to make a fortune, take me with you!” Luo Qi recalled the content of the Mystic Source Sorcerer. As an advanced profession, the Mystic Source Sorcerer’s methods for processing and extracting materials are more complex. Based on mathematical and rational thinking, they can extract materials more efficiently.

Moreover, according to calculations, they have a deeper understanding of materials and can extract substances and materials that are generally considered impossible to extract from certain types of materials. Furthermore, in the theory of the Mystic Source Sorcerers, Mystic Sources can be converted into each other because magic is essentially different manifestations of the same thing.

Conversely, because arcane sorcerers cannot use arcane arts, they cannot use techniques incorporating arcane arts to extract and process special arcane materials like alchemists, nor can they directly convert normal materials into arcane materials.

"What can you provide?" Morna asked curiously. The demand for alchemical materials was endless. No matter how much you threw onto the market, the alchemy workshops and magical steam plants could quickly consume it all. Because refining involved arcane arts, it couldn't be industrialized. At least, Morna hadn't heard of any country or power making any breakthroughs in this area.

Regardless of whether a deeper magical or alchemical revolution will occur in the future, at least for now, this business is indeed a quick way to make money. Besides, even if an alchemical revolution does happen, it will inevitably originate among alchemists like themselves. In that case, it will not only not affect their ability to make money, but will actually bring them even greater profits.

I can provide both the basic materials and the basic essence.

"That's all?" Morna frowned. Wasn't this the level of an alchemy apprentice? The standard for an alchemy apprentice was being able to extract one portion of any essence and one portion of any alchemical material.

She quickly relaxed her brow. Both apprentices and masters can extract essence, but efficiency and time cost are two different things. In fact, masters can also extract some other by-products on the side.

"I can also provide alchemical runes, but those things..." Because of the price, they don't sell as quickly.

"Now?"

“Not now, I don’t have any suitable tools.” Roach’s goal was to see if he could borrow a set of tools from Morna.

“Sure, I can lend you a basic set of tools, but there will be a rental fee.” Morna looked at Roach warily. Was this guy eyeing her high-precision, precision-engineered alchemy tool set?

For alchemists, this thing is more important than a wife. If you don't have a wife, you can find another one, but if you lose this thing, you may not be able to buy a second set. Even if you do, you have to readjust it and adapt to the slight differences between the tools.

"Basic tools are fine." Basic tools are things like simple beakers, measuring cups, small balances, and mortars. At most, a distillation apparatus might be added. Advanced gadgets such as temperature measuring devices and secret furnaces are not included.

By lending the Little Witch his reputation, Roach successfully obtained a set of basic tools from Morna, and then traded some simple alchemical materials with her using materials like corpse brains that he didn't need.

"Amethyst, silver powder, acanthus, hmm, nothing strange mixed in." After checking the materials and looking at the book again, he was certain that there was absolutely nothing mixed in that looked like basic materials but would actually blow up the workshop or even the entire street.

He planned to create a source of life, with the life force provided by acanthocephala, an alien moss plant with abundant and tenacious vitality. Amethyst would serve as the medium and catalyst, and silver powder as the container.

After grinding the plant materials into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle, mix them with silver powder, then add them to water. After the residue settles, add amethyst. As the crystal gradually becomes clearer, scoop it out; this is the carrier of the life essence.

Simply soak the crystal in the solvent used for the essence, and wait for the amethyst to completely change color to obtain one unit of life essence. For the refiner, the remaining liquid can be discarded, while for the arcane sorcerer, the remaining liquid is also a material for creating arcane paradigms.

【Paradigm, Constancy, Dispelling Holy Water】

The constant paradigm refers to all spell effects that have a continuous effect, including major forms such as summoning and puppetry, but also things like illumination and shields.

The dispelling holy water is the paradigm of "death source" created by arcane sorcerers using this byproduct. That's right, the byproduct of life source is death source, which seems reasonable? It can absorb and suppress magic power to a certain extent, disrupt the stability of summoning spells, or cause damage to things like necromancers.

This time, Roach's operation went smoothly. He not only obtained one unit of Life Essence, but also one unit of [Dispelling Holy Water]. The liquid, shimmering with a faint bone-white glow, swayed in the reagent bottle. This was a product unknown to normal alchemists.

“Here you go!” Roach tossed the holy water to Leslie, who had just gotten up. “This stuff is very effective against necromancers. When you need it, just pour it on your arrows.”

"Holy water?" Livia's mouth gaped slightly as she looked at the bottle of liquid with some surprise. A smile quickly appeared in her eyes as she reached out her little hand, stood on tiptoe, and vigorously ruffled Roach's hair, seemingly happy that her magical pet had actually learned to configure a constant paradigm.

Leslie didn't react in any particular way. Anyway, this family wasn't normal, so she was used to it.

"Life essence? One unit?" Morna examined the crystal, which had turned transparent. "You're pretty quick."