Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Uh, that's all the money we have." The adventurer in front of us was a young girl with long, thick red hair tied in a braid at the back of her head. Her three companions were clearly from the same place as her. One of them was a tall, red-haired young man with a forearm shield and a short gun, who looked like her brother.

A girl wearing a hood and black church robes, judging from the crossed swords embroidered on her clothes, was not a nun from a convent, but a proper combat priest, probably a trainee gatekeeper, which is the basic rank of a combat priest.

The so-called gatekeeper is a doorman, responsible for guarding the church door and welcoming believers. The next step is to become a formal gatekeeper, then an apprentice exorcist, an exorcist, a priestess, a deacon, and a priest. Basically, without a background or identity, becoming a priest, that is, the chief priest of a church, is her final outcome.

Finally, there was a short, chubby guy who was clearly the richest in the group. He was an apothecary. With spellcasters and clerics hard to find, and alchemists even more expensive, apothecaries were the core of an adventure team.

According to Roach's understanding, the apothecary profession is closer to that of a druid. They are proficient in herbalism, medicine, and first aid, and because they need to work in the wild to collect herbs, they also have a certain understanding of astronomy and geography. They are considered the first-class "cultured people" among adventurers.

They perform tasks such as detoxification, identification, guidance, treatment, and bandaging, and occasionally they are also responsible for the encoffining of their companions' remains.

"Archer, shieldbearer, apothecary, and a trainee cleric..." Roach stroked his chin. This group's composition was quite reasonable. If they added a low-level wild mage and a thief, it would basically be a perfect standard 6-person adventure party.

It covers everything from dealing with various enemies and traps to issues such as negotiation, trade, and bargaining. Unfortunately, wild mages and rogues are rare positions in a team. The former are hard to find, and the latter are easy to find but mostly unreliable.

The red-haired girl in front of him looked at Luo Qi nervously. His face, which seemed to be full of alliances and schemes, was very intimidating at this moment.

"I mean, we only need those discarded, defective pieces that you don't need."

“I don’t have any defective products here,” Roach said with a serious expression, putting down his hand. “I only have experimental products that are not perfect for various reasons.”

“What you’ve heard is a rumor,” Roach said seriously. “However, I can sponsor you some things. In return, you’ll need to report your experiences and findings afterward. Consider it a kind of experiment.” Indeed, he needed some field test data. He couldn’t very well carry the weapons up and detonate them himself every time, could he?

"Okay, okay." The red-haired girl nodded hurriedly. This kind of work was not unfamiliar to adventurers, but most of the time, the performance of the alchemical equipment used in such experiments was...very unreliable.

However, considering the team's financial situation—they could only find nine gold coins of varying sizes and weights after searching through their last money bag—this experimental alchemy equipment could be considered quite good.

“Archers and shield bearers…” Roach pondered for a moment, then turned and walked towards the carriage. After a while, he came out with several boxes. “Come on, let’s register them,” Vivi said, opening her notebook to register the names of these “testers.”

The red-haired girl was named Lai, a very ordinary name. Next was her brother, Yorn. The priestess was named Angela, an apprentice gatekeeper from the Sword Street Church in Hearthstone. Finally, there was the apothecary named Groot. Hearing his name, Roach glanced at him again.

Inside the box is a Mystic Source equipment made by Roach. Unlike Mystic Source Paradigms, which can only be used by the user, Mystic Source equipment, like Alchemy equipment, can be given to others. The only problem is that, since Mystic Source sorcerers themselves do not have or have very low Mystic spellcasting skills, this kind of equipment has a very serious prerequisite: it requires a Mystic mage of a certain rank to cooperate in activating and completing the spell structure inside.

At the same time, the ritual mage must also have a high level of alchemy skills, which leads to a vicious cycle: if a source mage has the ability and connections, why would they need to make source equipment? And those who need to make such things simply cannot find the conditions.

On the contrary, Roach not only has alchemists here, but also more professional witches, and even a fairy. The reason he creates the Mystic Source Equipment is that only the unique composite effect of the Mystic Source Equipment can realize his wonderful ideas.

"The Deflecting Shield, once activated, will form a deflecting shield effect that covers the entire body, deflecting incoming projectiles and attack forces. However... the direction of the deflection is uncontrollable, so try to make sure there are no teammates standing nearby." Vivi briefly explained the performance of this secret source equipment to the red-haired youth who had received a silver metal arm shield.

"The Elemental Quiver: you just need to put arrows in it, and it will automatically be infused with elemental effects. The longer the arrows are left in, the stronger the elemental effect becomes. Of course, it is also more unstable." This means that Roach's classic side effect will occur—explosion.

As for whether the arrow explodes on the bow, in mid-air, or inside the enemy's body, it's unknown, because Roach hasn't found anyone willing to test it yet. When Leslie heard about it, she immediately transformed from a fish-man into an oyster-man, constantly chanting "oyster, oyster, oyster."

Finally, there's a staff, a buffing staff made by a witch, crafted from the living giant wood of the Living Forest, with a high-level Nightmare Demon (Sub-Lord) tail hair core, and inlaid with cheap blue crystals.

The advantage is that the amplification rate is extremely high. The disadvantage is that, apart from the decorative crystal, the materials all have their own ideas. It is recommended to use them as much as possible to cast offensive spells, because the spell effects are very random. Apart from not turning offensive spells into healing spells, anything can happen.

"Thank you so much!" Although these pieces of equipment have all sorts of strange and peculiar flaws and defects, considering that they can be bought for only nine gold coins, all their defects are no defects at all.

"This amount of money isn't enough to cover the costs, is it?" Vivi said to Roach after the adventurers left.

“Well, to be precise, it’s not even a fraction of the cost. Even excluding certain special materials, we’re still losing money,” Roach said, looking again at the alchemy merchants soliciting customers. “But now we’re being accused of only making defective products, and we need to clarify that.”

The black horse lazily chewed on hay, its eyes fixed on the alchemists. Clarification was something people like Roach did, and a demon like him wouldn't bother with reputation building or clarification; he only needed to destroy other people's reputations.

"I actually warned you a long time ago not to sell those decorations made by Lady Livia." Because those things are really useless except for being pretty. As a result, after the buyers took them back, they were naturally of no use at crucial moments. Over time, the rumor that the alchemical products sold by Roach were defective or unstable products came about.

"That was only the first time, and I reminded them." Roach shook his head. He had laid out a whole bunch of useful alchemical weapons, but the other party just happened to pick decorations. What could he do? Besides, the decorations were indeed priced according to the Little Witch's craftsmanship and material costs.

Those novice adventurers don't even consider that even if you could buy a divine artifact from a street stall, would it really only cost one gold coin? It's like buying a Rolex for 20 yuan on Taobao—can you expect it to be genuine? A real handmade magic sword by a little witch would cost close to 100 gold coins just for the high-grade Molten Burst Seal, based on the materials alone.

"If they had bought a few more alchemical grenade launchers and grenades, they wouldn't have crashed." Then it was the soul-bound corpses' turn to crash.

"Thump!" The blonde girl jumped down from the carriage, landing on the muddy ground. She brushed the dust off her black robe, holding a thick book in her hand. Leslie followed behind her, helping her open a wooden recliner. The little girl sat quietly in the chair, basking in the sun while reading the magic book she had just bought. A quill pen and an ink bottle floated beside her, constantly sketching something in the book.

Out of curiosity, Vivi glanced at the book. It was covered with red lines and circles drawn by Livia, as if she were scribbling. However, she knew that Livia was highlighting the useful parts of the book, commonly known as: highlighting key points.

What she covered up with black and green ink were the parts she considered to be fallacies and errors. Considering Livia's rank and skill level, and also the quality of the spellbooks that could be bought from those alchemy merchants, Vivi believed that Livia's judgment was basically correct.

Meanwhile, beneath Hearthstone City, a metal staff struck the moss-covered floor tiles, its crisp sound echoing through the stone-carved underground corridors. A young female mage, leaning on her staff, slowly walked down the corridor, her crimson hair falling down her thin face like viscous blood.

Her slender, pale fingers gripped the staff tightly and a small, white-covered magic book.

The mage walked silently down the corridor, following the bloodstains on the ground. A bright red butterfly of light fluttered beside her. [Sin Magic - Constant - Butterfly of Betrayal], one of the spells of the Void Realm.

The concept of "evil" is constructed and forms a physical symbol. As the light butterfly flies by, the faint light illuminates the corner of the corridor. The corpses of adventurers lie there in disarray, their expressions ferocious, as they forcefully stab each other's chests with their weapons.

"Why...?" The leader clutched his wound, staring at the female mage's face illuminated by the light butterfly. "Even if you kill us, the food here won't be enough to keep you here indefinitely." He assumed the mage had suddenly attacked because she hadn't found a way to leave, so she decided to strike first. After all, the dead don't need to eat, and in the darkest of times, companions could be a form of sustenance.

“No need,” the female mage said in a hoarse voice. Sin magic is not something to be taken lightly; otherwise, a Sin mage from the Void Realm wouldn’t be sitting at the same table as a Hell Warlock.

From the moment she began reading those magic books, the first sin, pride, had already left a deep mark on her heart. She believed that her knowledge was sufficient to control this forbidden magic, and that the great sinners who were imprisoned here were nothing special. She was so confident that she arrogantly believed she had the ability to break the "Reverse Life Butterfly" spell ritual outside.

Pride led her to become deeply entrenched in this forbidden knowledge, and the power of this forbidden knowledge made her greedy, amplifying her desires and power. The great sin magic originated from the nihilistic concept of "evil."

This concept will not perish as long as intelligent beings exist, which also means that, whether deep underground or anywhere else, as long as intelligent beings exist, their "great sin magic" will permeate every corner like thick air.

For a ritual mage, who is used to drawing upon a handful of magical power from various bases, the temptation of suddenly encountering this situation is something that an academic mage simply cannot resist. And once she is deeply involved, whether it is due to the influence of the great sin magic or simply human nature, she can never go back.

"Evil originates from desire, and what is the ultimate desire? It is eternity," the female mage said hoarsely. "And I will climb the ladder of eternity once more. As long as there are people in the world, sin will not disappear. Sin will not disappear, for this magic that originates from nothingness is like the ocean that will never dry up."

“Did you hear that? The tide of sin…” The female mage half-squatted down and reached out to touch the leader’s face. “Did you feel it? Your body is betraying you.”

The Butterfly of Betrayal landed on his face, and his heart clenched so tightly that every nerve in his body seemed to have a mind of its own, arguing and fighting each other. Countless red scars appeared on his face, and his breathing became rapid.

If Roach were here, he could probably tell that this guy was experiencing extremely severe "allergic" symptoms. Simply put, his immune system was now treating all normal cells as traitors and was killing them indiscriminately.

The leader didn't last long before he breathed his last in despair. The female mage hesitated for a few seconds, then took out a small knife, cut open his chest, dug out his heart, and slowly brought it to her mouth. The ritual of [Great Sin: Cannibalism] had begun.

Chapter 47: My hand slipped and I fell too many times~

Night fell over the land, with only the light from the braziers in the corner of the town illuminating a small area around it. Militiamen, armed with steel spears, were unusually diligent in patrolling around the town of Ballista. Most of these militiamen were also equipped with leather armor and steel weapons, a privilege they might not have received elsewhere.

"Ha~" The window of the Alchemy Carriage Shop closed, and a magical seal appeared on it. Half a thief would not be able to break it, and those who were capable of breaking it would not be interested in what was inside.

The moment the window closed, a dark figure slipped in through the crack. Inside the carriage, various semi-finished ornaments and alchemical materials were piled up like mountains, while a small amount of alchemical equipment was placed in a box with magical anti-theft measures.

"Sizzle~" The purplish-black demonic fire slowly burned the magical structure, quickly prying open the magical lock. Then, the shadow flowed in, and a moment later, the shadow flowed out, quickly breaking the seal on the door and going out through the crack, while also locking the seal again.

When the sun shone on the town of Ballista again, the screams that rose and fell instantly jolted the drowsy militiamen and knights on their shifts awake.

"What the hell did this?!" The chubby alchemist merchant knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face. Most of the alchemical items he had collected had a small tooth mark on them, a piece of armor had been bitten off, and the weapons had chewed-up, twisted blades. However, the damage was not enough to destroy the alchemical equipment, and some of the equipment was not even affected in terms of performance.

But... when the alchemical equipment you display on your stall is covered in teeth marks and bite marks, how do you convince customers and adventurers who lack appraisal skills that the equipment is of good quality? And even if the performance test shows no problems, how do you convince them that you didn't use inferior materials to cut corners?

"Done!" Black Horse grinned at Roach, revealing his white teeth. Completely destroying all the alchemical equipment would severely weaken the human side's fighting power, and Roach and his group, the only "survivors," would be too suspicious.

But now that everyone's products are defective and made with shoddy workmanship, no one suspects Roach and his team. After all, the things they make are obviously defective and made with shoddy workmanship.

That damned guy couldn't possibly have damaged Roach's goods; it's just that Roach's stuff didn't look appealing. Maybe it was because that creature or being that could leave teeth marks on mithril-forged ornaments had no appetite for it.

"Master Roach, did you encounter anything strange yesterday?"

“If the test equipment explosion doesn’t count.” Roach shrugged, taking out a distorted, mangled metal object that still emanated a strange, mysterious aura. This caused Viscount Karius to fall silent for a few seconds. He seemed to have found another reason why Roach and his team hadn’t been harmed—was there anything in his creation that wouldn’t explode?

Karius thought for a long time, but still couldn't come up with an answer.

The knights investigated all day but found no suspicious murderer. The merchants had also pointed out Roach, the alchemist, as a suspect, but after seeing his "alchemy equipment" that had been blown to scrap metal due to failed tests, they fell silent, just like Karius.

As a result, these slightly damaged alchemical equipment had to be sold at a reduced price, attracting a considerable number of adventurer customers. After all, if an enchanted fire dagger was sold for 20 gold coins, even a scratch on it would make people think the seller was a swindler; but if it was sold for only 10 gold coins, even if it was missing a corner, it would still be the best thing in the world.

If it only costs 5 gold coins like the products processed by Master Roach, then even if it explodes randomly, it must be due to improper operation.

Crossroads Village is now teeming with adventurers and mercenaries who come here to accept quests and clear away the scattered undead creatures around the village and along the main road to the Deathwhisper Fortress, as well as to salvage and purify the remains and weapons and armor damaged by the Nether Winds.

Among this group of brightly armored adventurers, the four members of the "Belltown Adventure Team" were very inconspicuous in the crowd. It took quite a while for the red-haired girl, Lai, to finally squeeze her way to the knight clerk in charge of issuing commissions.

"Huff, huff~ We are..."

"No need for introductions. New adventure team? Where are your licenses?" The clerk waved his hand, indicating that they shouldn't waste time introducing themselves. He took the girl's beginner adventure certification license, placed it on the commission form in front of him, and stamped it directly, half on the license and half on the commission form.

When it comes time to submit the results and receive payment, the seal will be used, not the person. If the license and mission items are stolen, then you're out of luck. Besides, the reward for this kind of beginner adventure mission isn't that tempting, since it's only 50 copper coins and a pre-paid military ration package.

For mid- to high-level commissions, there weren't as many people. Those were handled by official knightly squires, while most of the commissions were handled by representatives or leaders dispatched by medium and large adventure groups. Of course, these commissions were much more difficult, something that the four little guys from Belltown could never accept or complete.

"Clear the scattered undead creatures in the eastern hedge village. Request proof: at least 20 Death Cores." Death Cores are the condensed cores in the ashes left after an undead creature dies and is burned. Like relics, they have no use except to prove that you have completely eliminated an undead creature.

Hedges Village is located east of the crossroads, the first of several villages leading to Copper Mine Town. It has been cleared out several times by mercenaries and large adventure groups, but due to the pull of the Soul-Binding Crystal in Deathwhisper Fortress and Copper Mine Town, a large amount of ghostly winds continuously summon a large number of resurrected skeletons.

Some of these skeletons came from corpses buried deep underground, while a larger portion came from monsters summoned from another world. It was impossible to completely eliminate them before the Soul-Binding Crystal was destroyed.

"Resurrected Skeleton, then we're counting on you, Angie!"

"Hmm!" The short trainee gatekeeper nodded, his hand gripping the buffing staff he had purchased. The staff was poorly made; it was just a slightly crooked piece of wood with a crooked, low-quality crystal inlaid at the top. It even had splinters to the touch, and it was clearly not a valuable item.

This was something the little witch made as practice; the materials came from a tree branch she casually broke off in front of her house and a hair she plucked from an old horse. The crystal was a shipwrecked relic she found on the beach. But for Angela, no matter how ugly it looked, it was still a true amplitude staff, wasn't it?

Within the church, only officially recognized exorcists could possess such magical enhancement equipment. Conversely, if it were truly like the ornately decorated staffs worn by exorcists, she would suspect it was some kind of scam.

The Church's combat priests are divided into two types. One type follows the path of paladins or guardian knights, mastering a small number of blessings and using specialized extraordinary martial arts [divine martial arts] to fight. Both men and women wear heavy armor and carry shields and heavy blunt weapons, such as the kind of real pillow-sized hammer that no one on Earth can wield.

One type is the Prayer sequence, like Angela, which focuses on spellcasting combat. They wear only light armor and fight using various blessing spells and holy arts, as well as providing wide-area buffs.

Of course, even the lightest protective gear was beyond the reach of Angela, who was only an apprentice. She would only receive basic equipment from the church when she finished her apprenticeship and was promoted to a full-fledged gatekeeper. This equipment included a light leather armor, a robe with slight magic resistance, and a long-handled ram's horn warhammer.

As the team's only spellcaster and main combatant, Angela was not weak in stamina. Even after walking through the main road, which was deserted and littered with signs of burning and fighting, she did not show any obvious signs of exhaustion when she arrived at the outskirts of Hedge Village.

“Hedge Village, I’ve been here before,” Rae sighed, looking at the dilapidated village in the distance. “They were most famous for their fruit trees.” The village got its name from the dense, fence-like rows of fruit trees that surrounded it. “Now, there’s nothing left but the dead and monsters.”

Plague bats inhabit the fruit trees, resurrected skeletons and corpses are inside the collapsed houses, and a considerable number of shadow hounds roam around.

“Let’s focus on the mission. We only need to deal with the resurrected skeletons and corpses. Don’t provoke those demonic hounds and bats.” Ray, as the “captain,” assigned tasks to his three companions. “Groot, get your life potion bottles ready. We’ll lure them out one by one.”

The life potion bottle is not a healing potion. This scarlet liquid is an herbal potion made from animal blood and other materials. Because it emits a very obvious life aura in the eyes of undead creatures, it is used as bait and smoke bombs.

At the same time, it can also restrain some creatures that have no sight but a keen sense of smell, guiding them to favorable terrain for encirclement and killing. It is one of the potions that pharmacists must master.

"Brother, you take care of protecting Angie, and leave the rest to Angie and me." The girl took out an arrow that had been plated with a bright red layer from her quiver and attached it to her short bow.

The crimson potion dripped onto the ground, and soon a skeleton that had been wandering around the village raised its head. Its withered bones were wrapped in purplish-black death magic, and it held only a rusty knife in its hand. It was unarmed and could be easily dealt with even by a fully armed militiaman.

The skeleton slowly walked towards the spot where the potion had dripped, as if the soil was radiating some strange attraction. "Here it comes. Just wait until it's far away from its companions."

The shortbow was slowly drawn back, the arrowhead aimed at the skeleton's feet. For a skeleton that is only a skeleton, shooting at it directly is useless unless the archer is highly skilled and can accurately hit the neck bone or skull.

The best approach is to use trap arrows or lasso arrows to shoot at the opponent's feet to disrupt or bind the target, allowing your spellcasters and warriors to quickly eliminate the opponent.

"Whoosh!" The arrow twisted and darted through the air like a fish towards the ground beneath the skeleton's feet. However, before it had even traveled halfway, the magic power on the arrow began to become extremely unstable. The fragile wooden shaft began to crack and eventually turned into a raging fireball.

"Boom!" The resurrected skeleton was completely blasted to pieces. Not only that, the huge noise and light caused the shadow hounds on the plains to stop moving abruptly, and then swarmed over.

"How much Flame Essence did you pour out!?"

"It's just a small bottle of basic Flame Essence!" It's only equivalent to the amount of fire elemental energy that a Mystic Mage can control with a [Basic Flame] skill.

"They're coming!" Angela quickly raised her staff, sweating profusely as she channeled the meager divine power within her body. [Holy Art: Lightsaber Summoning] A ball of light appeared at the top of the staff, followed by several holy beams of light falling outwards, forming a ring of light that acted as a barrier.

It looks similar to esoteric magic, but in reality, the sorcerers of the Mystic Source School have used half of their schools of thought to prove that it is completely different from esoteric magic. The difference is no less than that between relativity and quantum mechanics, and that might even be an exaggeration. In fact, it may be as big as the difference between physics and theology.

"Move quickly!" The red-haired youth grabbed the solid-like lightsaber and threw it at the nearest shadow hound the moment he drew it. The spell's purpose was to summon a lightsaber with divine effects; however, its use was simply to draw it and slash or throw it.

Each lightsaber can only be used once. This is a spell often used by battle priests of the paladin path when fighting bare-handed. They summon a bunch of lightsabers and plant them around, then pull one out and slash. After the lightsaber disappears, they pull out another one and continue until all the summoned lightsabers are used up.

When the light blade touched the foremost Shadow Demon Hound, this monster, which looked like a condensed cloud of black smoke, instantly exploded into countless golden needles, tearing apart most of the smoke. However, it was not fatal.

"..." The amplitude effect wasn't negligible, but it was better than nothing. Angie wasn't surprised. For a staff of this design to even work was already quite good. She was even prepared that it might not only fail to provide any benefit but could even cause the spell to fail.

After a brief pause, Angie decisively used the meager power of her divine gift to cast her next spell. Offensive spells were not very effective in the current situation, so she used a distraction spell instead.

The effect of 【Holy Art - Resist】is to generate a circle of warm light that blocks enemy attacks and movement. The resistance effect is related to the "gift" power infused by the caster.

Unlike the environmental magic used by esoteric mages, their blessed power does not recover naturally; it is essentially a trace of divine authority injected into the bodies of devout believers by the gods.

Priests gather these small amounts of power through year-after-year prayers and rituals, as well as devout faith, and as their status increases, the blessings they receive from God also increase.

It's roughly like saving up your salary; once it's used up, it's gone, and you have to wait until the next payday. Theoretically, there's no limit to this kind of saving. As long as Angie doesn't use it, he can save it up until he's a hundred years old and unleash a super-powerful holy spell.

However, the lower the rank, the lower the salary. Even if one saves up until the age of one hundred, it may not be as much as the "gifts" a cardinal accumulates in a month.

In order to preserve her healing and support abilities, Angela infused only a small amount of the blessing, just enough to slightly block it. As a result, the staff in her hand suddenly burst into a strange purplish-black flame, seemingly stimulated by the power of the blessing.

Then, countless transparent and crystalline golden rays of light spread out from the staff, forming a long wall of thorns that was 2 meters high and at least 15 meters wide.

"Hmm~?" The black horse stopped chewing. It seemed that someone had just prayed to it for power. But after sensing it carefully, it didn't seem to be the practice of normal demon priests. The power of blessing could come from gods, and it could also come from other powerful supernatural beings, such as demons and evil gods from other worlds.

Just as there are three negative or evil factions among mages, there is also a counter-faction among clergy, who use otherworldly demons and evil gods as objects of prayer to obtain their blessings.

However, compared to the orthodox churches that operate like government offices with a seniority-based system, these evil gods and demons are like gambling or doing business. They might make a fortune with a wave of sacrifices, or they might not only fail to receive any blessings but also lose their souls and flesh.

"It's that staff!" Black Horse suddenly realized. Being the first customer to buy Little Witch products, it decided to give the customer a small discount.

"Holy crap, they gave me too much!" I haven't done this job in a long time, so I'm a bit rusty. I accidentally gave them too much. I hope that unlucky guy doesn't get fired because of the "third-party investment."

It was as if a vast, divine power emanating from the void flowed through Angela's body along the staff, and she even had a feeling that, at this moment, she was the legendary "demigod hero."

An eerie, ghostly blue light gathered on the staff, and the spell [Holy Art: Light Bullet] was activated. The spell, originally used for illumination and dispelling shadow creatures, transformed into countless ghostly blue light bullets that erupted from the tip of the staff like a storm, almost completely covering the outer perimeter of Hedge Village.