Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Phew~" Livia stopped the entire city defense attack spell structure and exhaled. For her, this was a very unfamiliar and interesting experience, but it was also very exhausting. The invincible little witch with the stamina of a lowly fodder collapsed again.

“I suspect this is not the end, but the beginning,” Roach said, looking at the green wall that had appeared in the city.

“Same feeling,” Alessina adjusted his suspenders uncomfortably. “The church’s law enforcement team has suffered heavy losses, more than half of the town guards have died, and there have been many casualties among the garrison knights. In addition, several blocks have been destroyed and sealed off… I guess all sorts of monsters and demons will jump out next.”

“Cultists, heretics, the Horse-Headed Saint… they’ll be popping up soon.” Leslie turned around and saw several people looking at her with eyes that seemed to say, “If you’re not a mermaid, then who are you?”

"Ah, why are you looking at me like that? I've seen this kind of thing before. You know Kevins City in the eastern part of the continent, right? That's how it all ended. At first, it was just a small group of cultists causing trouble, but the local city lord made a mistake and sent a large number of people to wipe out the cult strongholds outside the city. As a result, they were temporarily trapped, and soon everything started popping up in the city."

"In just half a month, the city turned into a huge bonfire of madness, with all sorts of things. Now that place is one of the most chaotic places on the continent."

“I’ve heard of that. It used to be a city of freedom and joy, but now it’s a city of crime and chaos.” Alessina nodded. She had been to that city and heard that the longest the city lord had ever been in power was no more than three years. Various forces were entangled together, creating a chaotic situation.

The neighborhoods are like different countries. Under the management of some communities, the city still functions normally, while under the management of others, it can only be called a living hell—you are not even sure if that community believes in evil gods.

To put it simply, the Church of the God of Judgment has been dragging on in that city for almost ten years, and can only maintain order in a few blocks around the church district. You can imagine how bad it is. It's like rotten salted fish in a jar of pickled meat on a ship. Maggots from all over the eastern continent are heading there, preparing to join in the grand event.

"The capital of any country is inevitably a place where filth and corruption can lurk, especially at times like this." This is easy to explain. The capital usually means a large population. A large concentration of people requires a lot of grassroots power to control. In addition, with rapid and dense economic exchanges, driven by interests, desires, and so on, all sorts of monsters and demons will naturally appear.

"However, because of this, most of the time it's not as chaotic as other places."

Not only is the capital city a highly visible place, but most of the organizations and shady characters there are driven by money and profit, so they will spontaneously maintain a semblance of stability and normalcy.

Even from a purely security perspective, it may be better than most small and medium-sized cities, but that doesn't change the fact that such places are teeming with all sorts of strange and monstrous things. Whenever there is a major upheaval, all sorts of bizarre things can emerge.

"Yes, once things get chaotic, it's impossible to end them in a short time." On the one hand, there are too many oddballs, like earthworms—either they don't dig them up, or when you do, they're a huge, tangled mess. And that's not all; oddballs from other places keep coming to join in the fun.

"We'll see in the next few days. If they're dealt with, things can return to normal, just like the previous riots." If the suppression is swift enough, the remaining people won't cause trouble. "But if they're not dealt with..."

“It’s not very livable,” Alessina sighed. “Speaking of which, where did the young lady’s house go?”

"We're almost in the southern plains," Livia nodded and said. Perhaps for bloodthirsty viewers, the capital city was a constant source of drama, but for Livia, who preferred a relatively peaceful and tranquil life, it only brought waves of exhaustion.

Chapter 359 The Results of the Examination

Three blocks in the northern district were completely sealed off. Town guards and some infantrymen from the garrison knights searched for any remaining zombies inside, while adventurers received a series of requests to explore and clean the sewers.

On the surface, it seems like we've entered the final stages, but in reality, everyone knows this is just the beginning, because, as the political joke goes, "You can't investigate everything, can you? What if you find something suspicious?!"

Now, the problem is that they don't want to see unkillable zombies running rampant in the city, so they have to investigate everything, and finding something is normal. So the question is, how much is hidden in the sewers, slums, and northern part of the capital? Nobody knows for sure.

The dim light of the oil lamp shone on the sewer bricks, the dense moss reflecting a greasy sheen. "How far have we searched?"

"150 meters," said the soldier carrying a lantern at the end of the line. He held a spool of silk thread in his hand and kept letting it out as he moved forward. The sewers of the capital city had been used and expanded for hundreds of years and were already an incredibly complex maze. Even the city hall did not have the corresponding blueprints.

Because many of these sewers were built on the foundations of sewers and ruins from previous dynasties and even older times, the adventurers' solution to these labyrinths is to use threads treated with chaotic magic. These threads carry a faint trace of chaotic and primal magic, and in this environment, they will not attract the attention of monsters or enemies, but can guide adventurers back to the entrance.

"One spool of thread is 100 meters long, and I've now unloaded half of the second spool." The soldier checked the spool in his hand.

"I feel like we've walked at least three or four hundred meters..." The sword and shield warrior at the front nervously looked at every fork in the sewer. "You're just imagining things..." the archer holding the magic crossbow complained, "because we fought our way here!"

I originally thought there would be unkillable zombies down there, but when I actually came down, I didn't see any zombies. Instead, I saw a lot of mutated giant rats, giant spiders, slime monsters, and giant poisonous centipedes. Heaven knows how the previous sewer guild managed to clean this place up.

"There are also shadow monsters and undead monsters. That swollen poisonous corpse before was really..." These undead creatures are created by the combined power of shadow magic and death magic, and they usually come from corpses discarded in the sewers.

Like a fat, bloated giant, it explodes upon impact, releasing a massive shockwave of shadow magic and poisonous mist. Its appearance and smell are enough to leave a lasting impression on any adventurer—of course, such a thing leaves almost no loot behind.

"Perhaps because the sewers were damaged by that demon, some things hiding deep inside have come out." "Wait... there's movement ahead!"

With a muffled thud, an arrow appeared on the warrior's shield. "Enemy attack!" Those behind quickly covered the oil lamp's light, while the archers in front threw their torches in the direction of the attack, both to shroud their own side in darkness and to illuminate the enemy.

The torch fell across the waterway, its faint light gradually fading in the sewers. The next second, a chill suddenly swept through the darkness, and the archer decisively lunged to the side, firing a green wind bullet from his magic crossbow toward the other side of the waterway.

The archer's expression changed as he heard the faint crackling sound of moisture condensing into frost. "There's a spellcaster, not a zombie!" Those zombies no longer had the ability to cast spells; they were creations of some kind of magic and could not possibly use elemental magic.

"Elemental Arcane!" The warrior at the back of the group took out a bottle of elemental resistance potion and drank it. As experienced and skilled adventurers, they all knew one thing: if the opponent did not have a spellcaster, it was best to save magic potions and various other potions; if the opponent had a spellcaster, it was best not to be stingy with various potions.

The extremely cold rays swept across the waterway, and the sewage in the sewer instantly froze into dirty ice blocks. The reflected light from the ice crystals made it even more difficult to discern the enemy's location in the already dim light. At the same time, these ice blocks themselves released cold air due to the water element, attracting more water elements to gather.

The opponent was equally experienced and not an academic mage. Compared to constructing complex rituals, this simple method was more suitable for short-range, quick battles. The gathered elemental power was not much, but it could amplify the cold attribute spell effect to a certain extent.

"A veteran!" Gathering the cold air was only the first purpose; the second purpose was... "Bang!" The wind blast spell shattered on the ice crystal block, and the broken ice shards swept across the corner of the sewer where the adventurers were hiding like brooms. Some of the sharp ice shards even pierced into the outermost layer of leather armor. These dirty ice shards were not just simple physical injuries; if the wounds were not treated with potions or cleaned immediately, the subsequent infection would directly kill several combatants.

"Student, aren't you done yet?!"

"Alright," a girl who hadn't spoken until now said with a bitter expression on her face. As the daughter of a noble family, she had never imagined that she would have to go into the sewers in her life. In comparison, the academy's final exams were a blessing. She would rather go back and face those "stormy" test questions than come here to get practical points.

“But…” A faint white light flashed in the girl’s eyes. Her fingers drew the runes with a level of skill she never expected. It seemed that the chaos in her mind and the proficiency in her body were completely disconnected. She could even complete the calculations for each rune group and the boundary calculations of the ritual field while her mind was wandering.

At the same time, even when his companions pushed him into a dent in the sewer wall, and his mind went blank with the terrifying moss and some kind of tiny climbing insects, he could still instinctively complete the configuration of the ritual elements.

"Elemental Restoration!" the girl shouted, activating the key. This amused the warlock across the sewers; only these academic mages still adhered to the principles of competition. But…

"What kind of spell is Elemental Reversion?" He was somewhat confused, but considering that he was not a student of the Imperial Academy, perhaps it was some new trick that the academy had come up with? The elemental waste energy filling the sewers suddenly boiled up, the mental magic power rapidly decreased, and these elemental spirits regained their vitality and began to operate in reverse along the traces of the previous elemental spell.

The flying ice shards instantly turned back into sewage, and the frozen ice crystals melted instantly. "Wind Blast!" Almost simultaneously, another spell was activated, seemingly having accurately predicted the opponent's spell. The exploding storm completely reversed the incoming cold rays.

"Well done!" The archer reloaded a magic bullet and fired it in the direction from which the spell had come.

"...This is a bit tricky..." The warlock on the other side glanced at his companions and the wall tiles shattered by the magic bullets. "Charge!" Several warriors wearing linen robes over chainmail rushed towards the squad. Their robes were painted with strange flame patterns in scarlet ink. Their entire heads were covered in barrel-shaped metal helmets, with only their eyes and noses showing through the T-shaped opening.

"Clang!" The long-handled cleaver forged from fine steel slammed into the shield. The enormous impact made the warrior's expression change. Damn, they were superhumans! The opponents were at least at the level of Superhuman Strength I, and there were quite a few of them. Judging from the footsteps, there were at least four or five people who could see in the dark.

"Telekinetic projection, be careful!" The warrior at the back of the group, while protecting the only spellcaster on his side, noticed a faint silver psychic glow emanating from another corner across the waterway. "They have two spellcasters!"

"..." The girl behind him was almost completely unconscious. In this intense magical confrontation, she didn't even notice that she was standing in sewage or the indescribable things floating on the surface. Her mind was filled with countless runes, knowledge, and calculation formulas churning around.

Her fingers quickly traced spell runes in front of her, while spices and ritual implements from the material bag were continuously thrown out. "Kinetic energy return!" The bricks that were smashing down like heavy hammers seemed to be pulled by some force, stopping in front of her, and then turning back at an acute angle.

"Reverse Fire Ray!" She never imagined in her life that she could master the advanced technique of using the similarity of similar rituals to quickly adjust and activate a second spell after completing a spell, using the remaining materials and ritual array.

But she couldn't resist the challenges of judging similarities and making approximate calculations for these ritual arrays; she had done at least a foot-thick stack of papers! Things that ordinary mages would confuse at a glance were crystal clear to her.

In particular, she has even developed the skill of looking at the elements and feature mappings without looking at the complex ritual mapping relationships—this requires considerable experience and intuition to avoid making mistakes.

It's like relying solely on a sense of language rather than grammatical analysis to judge grammatical errors; even if you don't know where the problem is, it just looks wrong at first glance.

Similarly, conversely, if you don't know which are approximate rituals, but only look at the features, as long as the feature mapping and the elements are similar, you can use them; otherwise, there simply won't be enough time to write the answers during the exam.

The dynamic element is a mixture of wind and fire elements. This theory was not taught in the academy, but the little witch still wrote some of the techniques for using it in the exam papers and textbooks.

Kinetic energy return is a theory that is a real spell. The opponent is using telekinetic projection instead of normal wind blast projection. Therefore, these projectiles will attract a portion of the wind element on them due to their high-speed motion, or rather, a considerable portion of the mental magic will be converted into kinetic magic.

Now she used the kinetic element magic to guide this thing in a zigzag trajectory, threw it back, and used the kinetic element magic to accelerate it again to make up for the kinetic energy loss caused by the change of trajectory.

Incidentally, this trajectory calculation was an instinct born from being thoroughly outmatched by Professor Roach's mathematical and physical prowess. It continuously applied kinetic energy to the side of the vertical normal velocity of the flying object, simulating the effect of the Lorentz force on the particle's motion, and directly producing the particle drift effect of the flying object on a macroscopic scale.

Because it was a similar kind of ridiculous test question, although she didn't analyze it as much as the ritual, she had still done it before. So, when faced with a projectile flying straight towards her, she subconsciously used a similar test solution to deal with it, and also threw out a backfire ray similar to the ritual.

A flying brick struck an unfortunate warrior on the head, knocking him backward. The sword-and-shield adventurer in front of him promptly charged and slammed the brick into the waterway, splashing up a foul spray.

A dim line of fire followed the faint trace of waste energy left by the return of kinetic energy. Elemental waste energy is not unusable; in fact, it is also energy and can be used. It's just that it cannot be used to form truly lethal spells.

Reverse Fire Rays project waste energy back along the trajectory of a targeted spell, thus interfering with the mage's next spell. This waste energy injected into the opponent's spell ritual can cause the entire ritual to go out of control. It is also a standard, textbook, academic "spell counter" spell.

The little witch's favorite counter-magic technique is to have a thousand ways to "command" elemental waste energy to sneak into your spells and burn your ritual feature mapping points at crucial moments, thus making your spells disappear without being usable.

"An academic?" The mage in the linen robe glanced at the hired wild mage. The academics wouldn't be so experienced. Well, not entirely, after all, there were quite a few old guys in the academics who often traveled around.

"The other party is an old guy..." Techniques like double casting and instantaneous reflex casting are not something that pampered students in academies can master.

"Retreat!" The brief battle ended, and apart from one person who was pushed into the waterway and ended up drowning or being swept away to some unknown place, there were no obvious casualties on either side.

"Phew~" The girl finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Miss Nina, I didn't expect you to be so much stronger than I thought." The captain put away his shield, reached out and grabbed the female mage's arm, pulling her out of the sewage.

"I thought that a mage from an academy like you would only scream and do nothing else when faced with something like this~" He had worked with the academy before, and the performance of those mages was still fresh in his memory. When nothing happened, they were all arrogant like peacocks in heat, and they couldn't stand anything; but when something happened, they could only scream and do nothing else.

However, this young lady was quite remarkable. Not only was she unaffected by the environment, but her magical support was also fast, accurate, and perfectly suited to the situation. Of course, he didn't know what dual casting meant; he just felt that she was casting very quickly and was able to deal with two casters simultaneously without being at a disadvantage, even briefly gaining the upper hand.

Especially considering that she was attacked on her own side and the other side had the initiative, it was commendable that she could do this. What was most commendable was that she stood in the sewage and cast the spell the whole time, completely unaffected.

"Speaking of which, did you bring a change of dress and boots?" Only then did Nina realize where she had just been standing...

"Ah!!!" A woman's sharp, terrified scream echoed from the sewer. "Quickly, get these things down there!!!"

As a result, the team had to end their sewer cleaning work early, return to a previous temporary camp to change clothes, shower, and report that they had encountered unknown human enemies below who were neither zombies nor monsters.

And inquire with the intermediary who assigned the mission, since there might be other adventure teams coveting the loot. If not, then there are other human enemies. You should know that clearing out monsters and monsters is a completely different matter and domain from fighting against humans.

In other words, the price and risk of a murder-or-non-murder commission are completely different for adventurers and mercenaries. If the former is in a city, they also have to consider legal risks, lest the sheriff comes knocking on their door after the job is done and accuses them of murder.

“Runes that look like flames…” Based on the patterns drawn by multiple eyewitnesses, Ms. Elena has determined what these things hiding in the sewers are.

"The people of the Ember Society... these ancient god worshippers probably regard the Punisher as some kind of ancient god projection." If the Doomsday Judgment Society is more like a fanatical doomsday survivor than a cult, although they do a lot of bad things, such as kidnapping, they are also an academic organization that can keep people safe.

However, the Ember Society is characterized by one thing: "ignorance and lack of knowledge," not only in theology but also in mysticism. It's roughly the difference between amateur scientists and charlatans. At least the former has some basis in fact, but the latter...

They don't even know what they are worshipping. Many of them don't actually worship the ancient gods, and they don't even know what the ancient gods are or what those things are. They just use this as a pretext to do bad things at will, and call it eliminating heresy.

In essence, they are no different from the guys hired by the Holy City. The only difference is that the Holy City has a real Holy Lord behind it and will really eliminate heretics, while these people are just putting on a facade.

"These guys might not even be able to spell the names of those ancient gods..." The sheriff was also a bit of a headache. The Ember Society was just like their name. No matter how cleanly you killed them, they would rise from the ashes, believe in completely different ancient gods, but do the same things.

“However, the fact that a mage appeared in the Ember means that this is not the rabble you thought it was.” Elena was not so optimistic. Most of the time, the Ember was a bunch of useless people and rabble. Let alone a mage, there were hardly any superhumans. But once a mage and a superhuman appeared, it meant that they were really cultists.

They truly worship those ancient, bloodthirsty, and terrifying gods whose existence is unknown. Many of them may even be disguised forms of certain hellish demons and gods, and they obtain some kind of power from these people.

The number of "Hell Warlocks" within these genuine Ember Order members is definitely not small, or rather, a significant portion of Hell Warlocks choose to join the Ember Order, using this alias and platform to seek benefits and souls for the demon lords they have contracted with.

"Be prepared for them to summon demons in the city, especially since, in their eyes..."

Someone has already summoned a Greater Demon once, and they might actually try the ritual to summon it again—although the Punisher is not a demon, but a kind of collective psychological projection entity, academically classified as: a projection summon rather than a physical summon (such as a rock golem or a colossus) or an otherworldly summon (such as a demon or a celestial being).

It belongs to a subspecies of energy entities (elemental beings, shadow beings). Some radical mages even believe that the divine incarnations and messengers summoned by the church's "divine incarnation" also belong to this category, as entities projected from the believer's physical and psychological reflection.

Of course, Roach and the Little Witch can now confirm that this theory is wrong, because the body used by a certain lonely old god is still in the basement of the cabin.

Chapter 360 Many Disasters and Tribulations

Deep in the sewers. "The False God's lackeys have discovered this stronghold; we have to move." An Ember Cult warrior, wearing a blood-stained robe, staggered into the stronghold, clearly bearing the marks of elemental magic damage.

“No, we will not leave…” the woman standing by the black stone platform replied, her eyes burning with fervor as she looked at the twisted creation before her.

"The flames of the true God will eventually burn away this false faith..." The bizarre creation, constructed of flesh and bones, resembled a human lying on the ground, with its white ribs curving upwards to form a crown shape. A section of its spine was pulled out, and a ball of blood-red flame burned on it, like a human-shaped flesh and blood brazier.

"Is it finished?"

“Not yet, I need you to buy me a little more time.” The woman continued searching through the mass of twisted flesh. “It needs one last… crucial element.”

"..." The cult warrior glanced at her and the pile of mutilated, skinned corpses, and remained silent for a few seconds. Although the Embers were a genuine fanatical cult, this scene was a bit too eerie even in the eyes of cult members.

Those living furniture-like objects sent a chill down his spine, especially knowing that these "fire basins," "table lamps," and "chairs" were living people just minutes before, and were still alive in some form.

The sewer passage. Crossbow bolts whizzed past, sparks flying from the shields. The mercenary wielding the large shield gave his companion a look, drew a short sword from behind his shield, which was painted with a blood-dripping curved blade, and charged forward a few steps. He slammed his shield into a charging cult warrior, and as the warrior staggered, he kicked him in the shin from under the shield. In the instant the warrior lost his balance and fell, the short sword pierced his side.

The excruciating pain of having his kidney pierced instantly rendered the cult warrior incapable of retaliating, but the enemy crossbowmen also pierced the mercenary's body with several arrows.

"Sizzle~~" A lit bottle of fire was thrown towards the waterway fork. This kind of alchemical incendiary bomb could not be extinguished by water and sand. It instantly ignited a raging fire in the waterway, and the cult crossbowmen decisively retreated into their cover.

"Your turn, mage!" The mercenary, shrouded in heavy armor, turned to look at the mage behind him. Natalia glanced at the battlefield with some difficulty, hesitated for a few seconds, then took out a piece of sulfur from her material bag, preparing to cast a spell.

"Fireball!" She unleashed a new spell she had recently mastered. Even the wizarding professor at the academy, after hearing her account of her self-taught process, admitted that he could no longer teach her anything, at most teaching her to slightly control her identification of materials and the tendency of her magic.

Wizards rely on incantations and mediums to cast spells, and the magic they use comes from the materials and mediums themselves. This also means that once you learn it wrong, it is almost impossible to correct it. Her soul has already adapted to this way of casting spells, and she can only make some adjustments that are almost minor.

For example, right now, she's certain that the primary magical element of sulfur is fire, so the spell she'll unleash will definitely be a fire spell, but what kind of fire spell it is...

The sulfur quickly turned to ash, and her soul, which was unusual compared to that of a normal wizard, spread out in all directions with a strange fluctuation. In addition to the magic power of the material itself, some magic power in the environmental matter was also activated and resonated with it.

Yes, Natalia's problem is that she has gone astray, causing her soul to become open. Normal wizards' spells have strict boundaries, but now hers is completely open. When she uses spells, she cannot suppress her soul from sending vague spell fluctuations to things that are not "target mediums".

The nature of naturally acquired magic is unknown, and the structure of spells becomes distorted and uncertain under this vague resonance. But this time, it seems to be good luck; a fireball the size of a basketball did indeed roll down the waterway.

The fireball will roll along a certain trajectory until its magic power is exhausted, and it will burn enemies in its path. It is a relatively basic type of spell, and this is also the technique that the professor taught Natalia - since your spells are uncertain, just use the fastest basic spell to get by.

“Okay, get ready to charge…” The mercenary nodded and gave his companion a hand signal. However, just as he took a step, the fireball seemed to become unstable. “Hiss~” Natalia knew at a glance that something was wrong again, and decisively turned around and ran towards the corner. “Get out of the way!”

Meanwhile, back at the academy, since the students had gone to the sewers for "training," Livia and Roach had nothing to do. The little witch was finally free from a mountain of papers and a bunch of whimsical ideas that were making her anxious.

Of course, Old Ma does most of the grading work, while the papers and quill pen do it a little bit. Only when Old Ma and the quill pen can't handle the bizarre mistakes will Livia be called over to broaden her horizons.

"Hoo~" The blonde loli sat quietly on the cushion, holding a teacup in both hands and sipping her vanilla tea. The rich aroma of vanilla made her emerald eyes squint slightly. The soft cake in the dish was beating up the other snacks.

The soft cake, made by cooking and pounding grains, is somewhat similar to rice cake. Its genuine "hammered and refined" texture is something that crispy biscuits can't compete with. After the sandwich biscuits challenged it, they were knocked over onto the plate, and the bright strawberry jam filling leaked out from the broken wheat crust, like a murder scene.

Outside the plate, three soft cakes were breaking several waffles into pieces and piecing them together to form a map of the continent, presenting it to the little witch. The little witch simply squinted and watched the snacks' antics with a soft smile.

"No matter how many times I look at it, this stuff is just too weird..." Alessina has always been wary of these snacks, mainly because the beastmen and orcs believe in animism, but these snacks are a bit too "spiritual," which gives her the feeling that eating them might bring a curse.

The three soft cake brothers, who successfully completed the mainland cookie picture, struck a very comical bodybuilding pose on the plate, showing off their powerful muscles (if they have any) to Leslie, who was reaching out to grab some snacks.

As Luo Qi watched the soft cake constantly changing its shape, he felt a kind of mesmerizing background music starting with "Auntie, press it down" playing in his head.

Just as Leslie was about to grab the cookie that had been beaten up and was now oozing its filling... accompanied by a sharp bird cry, orange-gold flames shot out from the square in front of the palace, vaguely forming the shape of a firebird with outstretched wings.