Witch Troupe and the Undead

Filling weapons with magic to make them move the user was a common tactic of ancient battle mages—after all, even though mages of that era paid great attention to physical training, they couldn't compare to knights—so they developed this ingenious solution of making weapons move on their own to attack.

"Bang!" The heavy alloy rod struck the man's head, and the leader immediately fell down. Fortunately, she did not use the tail, otherwise, that thing that spread out like an armor-piercing pickaxe would not have knocked him unconscious, but would have directly shoved his brains out.

"Not good, retreat quickly!" The remaining people didn't even bother to utter any threats, and scattered like birds and beasts.

The paving stones on the ground quickly separated, forming rock chains that bound the legs of the men. "Seriously, don't people even know how to observe their opponents when they go out these days? Tell me, you've been following them all this way, what are you trying to do?" The sharp spear-shaped staff pointed at one of the men who looked slightly more composed than the others.

"..." What for? What else could it be? Of course, we'll knock you out and sell you to some magical house of surprises!

"You're not going to talk? Then I'll have to use some methods." The black-haired girl reached out and cupped the face of an unfortunate man, then took a deep breath. He began to let out a terrifying scream. Unlike the little witch's scenes of extracting and sewing or tearing out the soul, his soul looked more like it was being crushed or annihilated.

The soul's magic power is absorbed at an alarming rate, causing the entire spirit to rapidly vanish into nothingness. Normally, it takes a long time for a soul to naturally perish after death, but various rituals can accelerate this process and prevent the spirit from experiencing severe pain.

However, in her hands, the soul begins to perish while the person is still alive. As the soul perishes, the flesh and blood also quickly lose their vitality, and a grayish-white color begins to spread wildly downwards from the part of the palm that it touches.

If the little witch's actions made it feel like every muscle, blood, and nerve had its own thoughts, then in this witch's hands, the entire person would be reduced to a pale, humanoid lump of flesh at a visible speed, their life and soul completely drained.

"Tsk~ Is that all? As expected, I'm still not very good at this kind of thing..." There was only a little bit of soul essence in her palm. Most of it was turned into nothingness and returned to nature by her silent magic. If Livia had done this job, she could have collected at least a full bottle instead of just a few tiny specks of light.

"If you don't want to end up like him, then tell us honestly, what exactly are you doing following him?" The remaining thieves then told them everything without reservation.

"..."

"..." The black-haired girl fell silent. "You mean, you think they're easy to bully, and that this staff was bought with money from their family... Hmm, has alchemy progressed that dramatically these days?"

She looked at her staff floating beside her. She had felt that alchemy hadn't made any qualitative progress when she was with the Freso family. The scale might be larger, and there were improvements in precision and effects, but that was all. It hadn't reached the level of a qualitative change.

In other words, this high-level combat staff, specifically made for Gold-level or, before the Arcanist Society and rating system were established—the standard of "Heroic" spellcasters—second only to Legendary weapons, was unlikely to be something that ordinary wealthy people could afford in this era.

"..." Just look at the two guys on the ground to see if you're easy to bully. They clearly misjudged and got themselves into trouble.

"Is the bar for becoming a thief really this low now?" The black-haired girl looked surprised. She could clearly see the embarrassment of these people. They hadn't realized their own strength and had just assumed they were easy to bully and followed her.

"..." It's not that the threshold for becoming a thief has become lower, but that you don't have any signs of being someone to be trifled with! No badges, no dazzling array of magical items (all of them are damaged), the staff on your back looks more like some kind of melee tool, without a complicated rune structure, and it's inlaid with lapis lazuli, which isn't very valuable among magical gems (actually, the highest-grade alternative, the Celestial Gem).

As a young lady who might come from a wealthy family, she came without any guards, seemed boisterous and unsophisticated, and was not even wearing a mage's robe, but rather a complicated little skirt that made it difficult to move around—from any angle, she looked like the daughter of some minor noble family who had gotten separated from her own people.

"A badge?" The black-haired girl glanced at her chest. Yes, it was the badge of an elder of the "Hermitage of the Mysteries." Even though the organization had disappeared, the gem pendant on a necklace that represented the level and status of "Epic Hero" was still there... Could it be that this method of evaluation is no longer used? That makes sense. So many years have passed, it's normal for titles and titles to change.

"You have absolutely no idea what kind of staff this is?" She looked at the thieves suspiciously. "Don't mages use combat staves anymore? Even if you can't recognize a combat staff, you should at least recognize the material 'Abyssal Silver Alloy,' right?"

This is a proper combat staff. Just by seeing it, you can tell that the caster is a combat mage who has undergone professional combat and hand-to-hand combat training. Even if you can't judge their strength, you can at least be sure that they are not a novice who has just started out—novices don't have that kind of arm strength.

"Not made of pumice wood?" A purplish-black wood that can be greatly reduced in weight after being inscribed with runes. Because its appearance and luster are similar to steel, and it is also very sturdy, many mages use this material to make such large staffs to show off, and there are even more extravagant ones.

"...Pumice wood? What is that?" The young girl looked confused. Was it some new-era product? No, judging from what they were saying, this kind of wood should be very light. So, do mages these days not practice swordsmanship and physical fitness anymore?

"Don't mages practice physical fitness anymore?"

"Huh?" This question caught everyone off guard. Doesn't the mage train his physical fitness anymore? Who knows? None of them are spellcasters. However, judging from the spellcasters they've dealt with or even robbed before... he probably doesn't train anymore.

"I see, no wonder you thought they were easy to bully~" A short little girl, the spellcaster basically doesn't exercise much, which means her physical strength is very poor, she lacks awareness and vigilance of the environment, and the battle staff is a lightweight "fake", so it is indeed easy to bully and very profitable.

Most of her belongings were lost. Apart from this sturdy battle staff and the necklace that symbolized her identity, she had no magical items or equipment. The clothes she was wearing were old clothes that she had just found in Florus Castle. They were old clothes, but their original owner probably hadn't even worn them twice in his/her life.

"Really, it seems that besides supplies, they also need to buy clothes and jewelry..." The young girl sighed. The money she brought from the Grand Duke's castle might not be enough. "Oh well, let's leave it at that~" She raised her staff and pointed at the people on the ground. "According to the ancient laws, people like you who offend others should be executed. However, they will give you a little leniency, since you did answer their questions, didn't you?"

The aura of sinful magic emanating from them was so enticing that it made her nose itch. This was why she noticed these people following her—several dark, sinful figures swirling in the crowd approached. While ordinary spellcasters couldn't distinguish them, to a true witch, the scent and the scene were far too conspicuous.

"Purification Impact"

"what!"

"It's Magic Explosion!"

A magical explosion, her favorite quick spell or special ability, caused the ambient magic to converge towards a center in an instant, being swallowed by the silent magic. The magical vacuum then created an inward magical compression, annihilating the magic released after the silent magic saturated...

"Bang!" The airflow expanded in all directions, leaving the spot where the thieves had been completely empty. It was clean and hygienic, with no large pieces of corpses or remains, and it didn't cause much damage to the environment. A cloud of scarlet smoke rose into the sky, turning into fine raindrops a few seconds later.

It works well whether it's destroying a small area of ​​an entity or eliminating a large area of ​​constant magical ritual effects, especially in terms of destroying rituals. It was this "trivial little trick" that blew up Frost Castle.

Its effect is the reverse and correct use of Livia's "magic void". Of course, just as she is not good at controlling soul fragments and creating new soul essences, Livia is not good at creating real magic voids to release such a flexible and useful small-scale magic explosion effect.

They are like two sides of the same coin; what one person excels at, the other is bound to excel at. In a sense, it's like a kind of destiny. For example, there's Livia, a weakling who gets red in the face after running a few steps, and a black-haired little girl who can carry a battle staff weighing about 18 kilograms and hit people on the head like a baseball.

Chapter 353

"Hmm, it seems that times have changed; there are indeed some pleasant surprises now and then~" the black-haired girl remarked with an air of maturity, holding a tin can of food. "There wasn't such convenient food back then~"

“Miss, the ‘before’ you mentioned is probably a bit too ancient.”

The advent of the secret furnace made metal smelting much easier, and canned food was naturally invented. The sterilization process, which might be troublesome for Earthlings, can be eliminated by a basic "disease removal" and "cleaning" ritual array in this world, killing more than 90% of bacteria and various molds.

"Yes... Long ago, when adventurers went out to prepare supplies, they only had hard salted fish that could be used as knives, dried meat that could be used as shields, and sour dry bread to prepare, at most some dried cheese and nuts."

The black-haired girl sighed, saying that at that time, these foods were considered quite good. Apart from a few large city-states with more advanced civilizations, it was difficult for people in most areas to eat meat.

"Actually, we have this kind of thing here now too~" The grocery store owner pointed to another shelf, which was filled with dark brown jerky and large bags of nuts.

"..." The black-haired girl looked at it for a while and then chuckled. These dried meats were smoked with spices and soaked in a lot of oil. The nuts were also artificially grown, harvested and roasted. At that time, they were considered to be a noble's meal.

However, she still took two bags of nuts and a few rather heavy pieces of jerky from the shelf, along with packaged biscuits and whole smoked sausages.

"Are there any more candies...?"

"Machine-made sugar cubes have recently become popular near the capital. It's all thanks to this train line, otherwise we wouldn't have such good stuff around here."

The shopkeeper glanced at the metal can placed in the center of the shelf. After the United Merchants Association took over the land and assets along the route, they naturally wouldn't let these things sit idle. In addition to transporting troops and supplies, they also transported a large number of extruded products from the capital, Silver Maple County, and the newly occupied Catherfield County, and took away various specialties from the Antal Territory that they were unable to purchase due to the theft of the lord's and the local merchant guild's treasury.

"Hmm..." The glistening sugar was pressed into small cubes, something she had never seen before. She casually packed a small bag, then her attention was drawn to the candies next to her. "Are these also like this?"

"Oh, these are local brown sugar and flower sugar, would you like some?" It's perfectly normal for a little girl to like sweets, and the shopkeeper subtly promoted the candies. A little girl dressed in such a beautiful dress was definitely an excellent customer for him.

"I'll take some, how much in total?" The black-haired girl pulled out a bulging money bag. "Three gold coins in total." The shopkeeper calculated the price. Three gold coins was a slight, insignificant discount. The main reason was that the sugar and jerky were expensive, while the canned goods and other items were not worth much.

Although the canned food was transported from the capital, considering that it's an industrially mass-produced product, the price wasn't too expensive. The smoked meat was locally made, mainly using meat from ducks and geese raised in large quantities in the river as filling, so the taste wasn't very good. At least the few smoked sausages she had weren't the high-end kind.

The biscuits are locally made using the most abundant rye flour in Rye Valley. They don't taste very good, but they have a long shelf life and are a popular purchase for travelers.

Sugar and spiced jerky are different. Needless to say, even in the capital, these sugar cubes are not something that ordinary families can afford. The entire general store only stocked one jar of them, and that was only because the Royal United Merchants Association had a lot of business coming and going, and many merchants needed to buy them for purposes such as meeting guests and negotiating.

“It seems that some things are still timeless…” The black-haired girl peeled off a red candy and put it in her mouth. This candy was made by boiling and then cooling the juice of “thorn berries”. It tasted very sour, with a slightly fruity and sweet flavor. It hadn’t changed much from her time to the present. Every spring, the mountain residents would collect these berries, then press, boil, and mold them to eventually turn them into this cheap local candy.

The remaining fruit pulp was mixed with a little sweet tree sap to brew a local specialty of low-quality liquor. She originally planned to buy some, but in the end she honestly chose the barrelled distilled spirits transported from the capital.

Alcohol is essential for adventures and long journeys. It can be used to clean wounds, season cooking (alcohol is effective at removing fishy smells), replenish fluids when there is no reliable drinking water (alcohol is less likely to cause illness than raw water, and diarrhea in the wild is basically a death sentence), and, when necessary, as a potion solvent; adding strong liquor to leftover potions is an effective way to dilute them.

These distilled spirits also have an additional use: they can be used to start a fire when tinder is scarce, making them much more useful than tinder. Of course, for a witch, this is the most insignificant use.

Flower sugar is made from the flowers of an edible vegetable widely cultivated within the empire's territory. This vegetable looks somewhat like romaine lettuce. The clusters of flowers are cut off, the thin stems are removed, and the petals, pollen, stamens, and so on are soaked in water until softened. After filtering and boiling, this more expensive white soft candy is obtained.

It has a very mild sweetness but a strong floral aroma. It has a soft and cool texture and is a common candy and snack among children in the Empire. In the era when the Black Witch was active, this kind of gummy was even a luxury item for nobles, because the flower used to make the gummy was also edible. At that time, no one except nobles dared to waste it like that.

"Hmm, about three gold coins..." The shopkeeper counted the small pile of coins and finally confirmed that he had not lost money on this business trip. The black-haired girl also packed up the large pile of supplies. She skillfully opened a gap with her fingers and threw the large bag of things in. After returning, she reinforced her storage space, or rather, her independent space in the crack of the elemental realm.

"Thank you so much, boss. I never thought I could buy everything at once."

"You must be joking. My selection isn't very comprehensive, at least not comparable to that of railway shops." Since it was difficult to compete with the Royal Railways for mid-to-high-end passenger services, the United Chamber of Commerce made full use of the railway.

In addition to opening railway shops at stations along the line to transport and sell various goods, several carriages were also converted for mobile trade along the line—equivalent to mobile supermarkets—which was an unexpected delight for the mountain people living in the hilly areas.

Although the magical train eventually used wheels, it still had a levitation function. Activating the levitation function allowed the train and carriages to be unloaded from the tracks and moved to the side by manpower or animal power, serving as a temporary trading camp. Of course, the Empire clearly didn't realize how terrible the consequences this would be for line scheduling. After all, so far, there hadn't been any head-on collisions or train rear-end collisions. Once those happened, they would realize that some things couldn't be done so conveniently.

Of course, with the old trains, rear-end collisions were unlikely because the speed was too slow. When the train in front was spotted, the stoker in the following train would even have time to tell a joke before braking. However, the speed of the new trains has reached 70 to 90 kilometers per hour, and it is not a problem to speed up to 120 kilometers per hour or more by using the boost acceleration mode.

Once the car in front is found stopping on the road to do business, the car behind basically won't have time to brake and will send the car flying into the sky, because of the wind element and the levitation array, literally sending it flying into the sky.

"Yes, it would have been so much better if we had something this convenient before," the Black Witch remarked. In the past, she would have had to walk at least an entire street to gather enough basic supplies for her adventures and travels.

Bread and biscuits need to be bought from specialized bakeries, provided there are bakeries in the local area. If there aren't any, you have to go to the lord's castle to buy them (medieval bakeries and bread ovens were high-tech industries, not found in every village or town; they were usually located inside the lord's castle).

You have to go to the butcher shop and the butchers' guild to negotiate for smoked meat and sausages, because some territories restrict commoners from eating meat. Only nobles can eat meat, while commoners can only buy blood sausage and black sausage (made from scraps, offal, blood and other random things) made from scraps, pig's blood and starch.

Of course, this is not a problem for witches. When they encounter situations where they cannot buy supplies due to the suffocating laws of their territory, they only need to take out their battle staff, throw a magic explosion at the castle gate, and the local lord will tumble out and order his men to fill her pockets with supplies.

Otherwise, the main tower of his castle would have flown as high as his castle gate.

As for sugar... even if she took out her battle staff and threw a magic explosion at the castle, the local lord's kitchen might not be able to spare much. After all, it was an era where two duchies could mobilize 20,000 to 30,000 people to fight over 200 pounds of sugar. The reason is simple: the territory that a civilization can stably produce is only so big. After ensuring the staple food, it is self-evident how much space is available for sugar crop cultivation.

Even she doesn't have a good way to quickly get rid of the Black Forest. She can only slowly cultivate, purify, and burn it, generation after generation, expanding her living space outward through repeated growth and burning.

"It's just that the money is a bit insufficient..." The black-haired girl sighed as she counted the little money left in her purse. This money came from the generous donation of a kind local gang that wished to remain anonymous. She was quite surprised that their entire gang could scrape together five gold coins.

"Looks like I can't afford a mount, and I can't even afford a train ticket either. Do I really have to walk?"

Hiking through dense forests and wilderness isn't particularly difficult, but that doesn't mean it's not tiring.

"I hope my lab is still there... I remember storing a lot of magical materials in there, and even setting up a magic array..." The greatest advantage of the magical world is that magical materials do not lose their effectiveness over time. In places with abundant magic, they only become more powerful over time. In a sense, this is also a kind of objective factor that the older something is, the more powerful it becomes.

While the Dark Witch was struggling with the straight railway line stretching out into the distance, a four-legged hut traversed the northern mountains and finally reached the shore of Black Lake, where it moored in the shallow water like a giant beast to replenish its fluids.

Water is drawn through the rock legs into the cone-shaped structure to replenish the hut's well and reservoir; otherwise, if the flowers in the nursery and the potions in the plantation wither... some cows will suffer greatly.

"Splash~" The three-meter-tall minotaur carefully held a water ladle that was unusually small for it to water the somewhat wilted flowers in the yard. Last time, it accidentally broke a water ladle and was surrounded and beaten up in the middle of the night by buckets, brooms, long-handled water ladles and lumberjack axes. It didn't dare to fight back. If all these tools were broken, it would be the little witch's turn to beat it up.

After being moistened by clear water, these flowers, which were clearly no ordinary plants, immediately raised their heads and swayed slightly in the wind.

"How much longer do we have to walk?" Minotaur looked at the vast Black Lake and the human settlements along its shores. The hut avoided most of the human settlements; this was the closest they'd ever come. "Never mind, I'm going downstairs for a drink of water..."

The bull-headed creature climbed the steps to the lower level of the hut, at the end of the spiral staircase on the side, where it was completely submerged in the lake water. It scooped up the water and drank it like an old farmer.

"Speaking of which, there are fish in this lake, right?" He looked up and made eye contact with a wooden fishing rod that was peeking out from the side. The rod decisively lowered its hook in front of him. "How about we go fishing?"

The bucket had already secretly brought water from the lake and placed it next to him. The chairs inside the house swung their four legs and rushed to the side, but Niu Tou dared not sit on them. If he broke them, it wouldn't just be a matter of getting a beating. He could only sit directly on the steps, watching as the fishing rod skillfully propped itself up on the chair and cast the hook into the lake.

The stone legs of the hut were covered with moss and other vegetation, which obviously attracted a lot of fish. Soon the float began to shake violently. "Oh~ I caught one!" Bull Head happily lifted the fishing rod, and a huge bluefish was wriggling on it.

"So, what are we fishing for?"

"..." Of course, no one would answer his question, but he quickly threw the fish into the reservoir, just to pass the time.

After replenishing their water supply, the cabin once again crossed the Black Lake and the Black River basin, heading towards the capital. They continued to avoid human settlements, following some kind of guidance as they traversed the plains and fields, traveling by night and hiding during the day.

"Huff...huff...huff...I can't take it anymore, I really can't walk..." The black-haired witch leaned on her battle staff, panting heavily. Her face was flushed, and her face and forehead were covered in sweat, her vest completely soaked. "I still need to find a mount or something..."

This is the only thing she can't do. Livia could create a clay giant for travel or twist the surrounding trees into tree people under these circumstances, but she can't.

You could ask her to turn those summoned creatures and twisted objects back into a pile of trees and dirt, but this ability to create is incompatible with her. Because of this incompatibility, she has failed several times in trying to raise pets. She can't tame intelligent monsters, and stupid beasts will instinctively avoid her.

The only animal that can be kept is a horse. This is not because horses are particularly intelligent or stupid, but because constant fear is a good way to control and tame a mount, which is quite different from how a pet will become affectionate.

"Whoosh!" The battle staff was casually swung out in an arc, and the light in the dense forest seemed to be twisted by some force into an invisible blade that cut through a small tree from the root. The tree crashed to the ground, and before it even fell, it was entangled by thousands of light threads. By the time it finally hit the ground, it had been broken into pieces of wood.

The dark witch sat on a clean tree stump, beckoned the wooden block over, snapped her fingers, and the moisture inside the block evaporated rapidly, condensing into a clean liquid in her hand before falling into the kettle.

"Phew~" After taking a big gulp of water, she finally caught her breath. Then she lit some wood to make a campfire, pulled out a sausage from the rift space and skewered it on her staff. That's right, besides cutting people, the spear-shaped combat staff's main function is to be used as tableware in the wild.

After all, you can't expect mages to grab greasy, fatty meat and gnaw on it with their bare hands. As for the grease on the spear blade, it's easy to deal with. Just throw out a small magical flame and it will burn away. Then rinse it with water to remove the ash, and it won't matter anymore.

The fat dripped from the sausages into the fire, bursting with the rich aroma of spices and fat. "Phew~ It feels like I'm back..." The witch gazed at the flickering flames. The campfire, the roasting sausages, the wilderness—the tranquil environment and the gloomy atmosphere were just like the impressions left from countless years ago.

Trekking and living in the wild were nothing new to her. Even after settling down, she would still have to travel far away from time to time to collect materials and experiment with powerful spells—there were no alchemy workshops or artificially cultivated potion materials in that era.

Many materials and alchemical products either need to be collected or made by oneself, or one needs to travel a long distance to trade with other alchemists who are skilled in alchemy or have the corresponding skills and formulas.

"Whoosh~" The deafening whistle shattered the tranquility, violently jolting the witch from her reverie. At the edge of the dense forest, a high-speed train roared past, pulling twenty-one carriages across the tracks. The jets on either side of the engine spewed out scorching, high-speed jets of air. The agitation of the wind element made her involuntarily cover her face and sigh. "Just as I expected..."

Chapter 354 Ruins and Silver Mines

For Knight Unique, today was the worst day of his life. He was announced early in the morning that he needed to march quickly to support the battle for Eagle's Nest. So, without washing up or even having time to taste breakfast, he was stuffed with roasted beans and nuts and urged to mount his horse.

The army hastily and chaotically broke camp and advanced along the wide dirt road, only to encounter an enemy who was equally hasty and chaotic, even more disorganized due to the lack of competent knights and junior officers to manage them.

After slaying seven or eight unlucky mercenaries and chasing away more than twenty adventurers who came looking for an opportunity, he thought his luck had finally turned around today.

Then, he saw the towering steel castle, the enormous fireball falling from the sky, and the scorching magical lightning. Before he could even react, his lance was engulfed in the vortex of arcs and flames. He was lucky; he managed to escape by lying in the scalding mud. And that's how things turned out.

"Tch!" Knight Unique gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. The cavalryman used his armor-piercing hammer to slam the sword about 5 meters away, stepping on the feet of a church soldier. Now, only this ordinary sword with basic enchantments could give him a slight sense of security.

"Clang!" The sword blade collided violently with the spear that was slashing down. Although it blocked the attack, it was also blocked on the outside by the opponent. Before he could even think of a tactic, the warhammer that was swung horizontally from his waist forced him to stagger and dodge.

Even if the one wielding this warhammer was just an ordinary infantryman who wasn't particularly strong, it would still be difficult to win in a short time if surrounded by four or five enemies, even with an extraordinary physique. Not to mention, these four or five enemies weren't all beings without extraordinary power.

For example, a warrior who holds a spear horizontally in front of him and points it at himself is clearly a warrior with a superhuman physique of level II or above, and is considered one of the elite among mercenaries.

Generally speaking, warriors with a Superhuman Physique I can be regarded as the backbone of the army, non-commissioned officers and junior officers, or the main force of elite troops; while those with a Superhuman Physique II are the average level of most knights in the Knights Order; those with a Superhuman Physique III are generally the strength of swordsmanship instructors or knight commanders in the Knights Order; and those with a Superhuman Physique IV and V are not the truly high-end forces seen on the regular battlefield.

Superhuman Physique I means that only one physical quality has reached the superhuman level, which may be physique, strength, agility and speed. However, Superhuman Physique II means that at least one physical quality has reached the superhuman level II, and all qualities are at least superhuman.

Speed, agility, strength, physique, and even willpower have all surpassed the limits of mortals, and one of these has even transcended an invisible boundary. Knight Unique has also come this far, so he clearly knows the extent of the difference in close-quarters combat that occurs with each level increase below Extraordinary III.

Of course, when you reach IV and V, the gap isn't that big anymore. It depends more on factors like equipment, combat experience, the number and proficiency of extraordinary martial arts skills you've mastered. The difference in physical attributes isn't as great as the difference between a human and a non-human.

"Equipment..." Standard infantry spear, a heavier version, to suit the strength of superhumans at the squad leader level in the army; chainmail and light breastplate; standard infantry equipment, without any markings, as if it had just been forged in the workshop; well, no magical equipment.