Witch Troupe and the Undead

It seems that opening the gate through the methods of the Great Sin Mage will activate certain settings of the ruins. In the hall, which should have been free of monsters, floating lamps appeared in mid-air. In the strange light cast by the lamps, one after another ethereal humanoid figures gradually took shape.

"Sin Spirit" Black Horse explained to those who had never seen such a thing before, "You guys had better be careful, this thing is very difficult to deal with."

The number of ethereal humanoids was small, just enough to correspond to each member of the team, including the fairies. In the light, these spirits gradually transformed into the likeness of Roach and his companions, though they differed slightly from various angles.

For example, Livia has light blonde hair, while her corresponding spirit has silver-white hair. Moreover, compared to the curious Livia, the spirit appears somewhat timid, clutching its staff with both hands and trembling, looking like some kind of small animal about to be bullied.

"Heave-ho!" Livia raised her staff, and the light from the bell formed dozens of light arrows, instantly turning the bewildered silver-haired little witch opposite her into a hazy white mist.

"Sin spirits feed on your desires and sins. The more original sin you have, the stronger they become. Don't treat them like ordinary double shadows." Double shadows are monsters that can mimic the abilities of adventurers. They seem difficult to deal with, but they are actually not that hard. You just need to exchange opponents.

“By the way, sinful spirits cannot be destroyed by others; they can only be dealt with by themselves.” Black Horse took a step back. These sinful spirits did not imitate him, perhaps because, as a great demon, this guy’s sins were too great for the spells here to bear.

Like him, Roach's sin spirit had no stitches on its face and looked at him with a strange expression. Just when Roach thought that the two were about to start using the Secret Source Paradigm and swordsmanship to decide the winner, the "sin spirit Roach" swelled up all its muscles, and its linen shirt instantly shattered, transforming into a muscular monster more than three meters tall.

"..."

"I told you, the Sin Spirits are related to your original sin. They don't imitate your abilities, but your sins. Oh, Roach, looks like you've been digging up quite a few graves~"

"Huh?" It would be strange for an archaeologist not to dig up graves, right? Besides, I was doing a protective excavation, so how can that be considered a sin?

“Oh, I forgot to mention, the standard for measuring sin is based on the concepts of the community you are in, so…” Black Horse led the little witch further away, “One piece of advice: never confront a sin spirit in a community environment you are not familiar with.”

For example, the Orcish Horde Alliance, which maintains a group marriage system, will not have a sin spirit of "original sin of lust." As long as you don't play too fancy games, within the Orcish cultural influence zone, the sin spirit will not absorb this part of the original sin, because in this community, this thing is not considered a sin.

"Isn't this pure idealism?!"

"Hey, Brother Roach, did you only realize today that the Void Source is purely idealistic?!" Black Horse was shocked. You've already reached the advanced level in learning the Source Magic, and now you're telling me that you've only just discovered that the root of the Void Source is purely idealistic power.

“I mean, are these guys just going to stare at us like that?” Leslie gripped her bow and pointed at the sinful spirit Leslie opposite her. “Yes, they will only move if you run away or attack. Before that, they will just wait quietly for you to make a choice: to face your sins or to run away.”

"So, we can take this opportunity to rest and take our medicine?"

"Yes, but be careful, the longer you delay, the more sins they will absorb." Black Horse led the little witch to a corner of the hall and lay down comfortably. Livia clenched her fist and gave Roach and the others a thumbs-up, her eyes sparkling, as if she were cheering on her children from the sidelines of a competition.

"Even if you don't mind this kind of thing, you'll soon find yourself unable to resist." No further explanation was needed from Black Horse, because the Sinful Spirit Roach gestured in front of him, "I also want a mother who's about this tall~"

"Damn it, where did you come from, Char?!" Roach charged forward, brandishing his Thorn Sword. The Sinful Spirit Roach raised his hand to block the blade's slash, letting the golden thorns wrap around his body.

"Arrogance, blasphemy, immorality... Brother Roach, aren't your sins... a bit too many?" Black Horse looked at the muscular monster that had grown skeletal wings representing arrogance and black thorns representing immorality. "Oh, and gluttony and lust... What are you thinking about all the time!?"

"Explode!" The thorns exploded, but they could only leave negligible damage to the opponent's solid black muscles. Instead, Roach was sent flying by a single slap.

"Hmm?" Black Horse was taken aback. "Oh, your sins are colorful, but the intensity..." With so many sins piled up together, anyone else would probably be crushed with a single slap, but Roach was actually able to stand up again with his longsword.

"Are there any weaknesses?"

"No, at least I don't know. I killed them with one slap." Black Horse indicated that sinful spirits, which are abundant in the second or third level of hell, pose no threat to him; they can be killed with a single slap.

“Strong defense, but lacking in attack power. Great strength, but clumsy…” Luo Qi roughly identified the opponent’s characteristics from the previous attack. The defense was extremely strong. His modified Thorn Sword was an enchanted weapon infused with the Secret Source Paradigm. If this attack couldn’t cause effective damage… However, the movements were somewhat sluggish, and it simply stood still in a defensive counterattack stance.

The Thorn Sword thrust straight at the Sinful Spirit, countless intertwined golden thorns piercing forward like spears. The Sinful Spirit, Roch, opened his massive maw, filled with fangs, and bit down on the thorns, pulling him forcefully forward. However, Roch immediately released the hilt of the sword, letting the Thorn Sword be pulled away, and instead drew the Storm Crossbow from his back and held it to his arm.

"Da da da da da!" Beams of lightning-attribute energy swords flew out. The new type of energy sword rain, which sacrificed tracking ability, accuracy, and rate of fire to increase power and penetration effect, kept hitting the body of the sin spirit, leaving deep wounds.

Arcs of electricity coursed along the muscles, the electric shock causing the muscular Sinful Spirit to pause abruptly. The Thorn Sword exploded at that moment, a Secret Source Sorcerer's advanced technique that, at the cost of sacrificing paradigms and enchanted weapons, unleashed all stored spells and essence energy in one burst.

Countless golden thorns spread outwards from the sword, intertwining and binding the sinful spirit tightly within. Like a giant golden tree, "Boom!" The thorns continued to spread upwards and explode, filling the entire hall with Roach's explosive sounds. When the explosions subsided, a layer of flesh had been ripped from the sinful spirit's body, leaving numerous blood-sucking thorns stuck between its muscles and bones.

"They're still alive?!" Roach hurriedly changed to a new magazine, but before he could fire more than a few sword rains, he saw the sinful spirits come crashing down from the smoke of the explosion like cannonballs.

"Thud!" Roach was slammed against the pillar, his internal organs shattered, and fragments of his organs sprayed from his mouth. He struggled a few times, then stopped breathing, and his sinful spirit dissipated into the air.

"This works too!?" Black Horse was stunned for a moment. Although it was a bit strange to say it, the principle that a person's sins are absolved upon death was indeed a common principle. Pursuing the sins of the dead was obviously meaningless. But the problem was that Roach's characteristics meant that he could be pieced together and resurrected by the witch.

"Ha~" The little witch covered her eyes, looking like she couldn't bear to look, and walked angrily to Roach's corpse, kicked it hard, but still put her palm on his forehead.

The blood and fragments of internal organs scattered on the ground flew up and were poured back into his mouth. His sunken chest slowly recovered. As his physical injuries healed, Livia took out the prepared soul essence, white amber, and began to stitch it up with dozens of glittering soul threads.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

"...Died again..." The little witch looked at Roach with a helpless expression and patted his head. "Be careful next time."

"Leslie, why don't you use this method too? Dying once will solve the problem." Black Horse shouted at the sweating Leslie. The sinful spirit in front of her had transformed into a monster with snake hair and a fish tail, and eyes and mouths on the palms of its six arms. It looked extremely terrifying.

"I'm not like that guy, I'm not doomed if I die!" Leslie nocked an arrow. If she delayed any longer, the monster would grow even larger, with two new arms slowly growing from the end of its fish tail. It looked like it would eventually become a real humanoid centipede made up of countless pale arms.

"Whoosh!" The arrow pierced the body of the Sinful Spirit accurately, and green blood slowly flowed out. The Sinful Spirit's reaction after the battle began was to open its palms wide, and countless beams of light shot out from its palms. Leslie rolled away with her front foot, but then saw a thick fish tail sweeping across her. She could only dodge with another lunge.

The sinful spirit raised its upper body high, and a large amount of acid gushed out from the huge crack in its face. "Hiss!" Leslie accidentally got some on it, and the flesh on her arm melted at an alarming speed.

"This thing is too aggressive! Damn it!" Just as Leslie thought her sinful spirit was incredibly agile, quick-reacting, and capable of both ranged and melee combat, making it a veritable monster, a huge white tail swept past where she had been standing.

"Wow, Vivi, what are you doing..." A giant dragon wearing a silver crown sat cross-legged in front of Vivi. The young alchemist girl looked helplessly at Leslie and shrugged.

"Sloth, arrogance, lust for power, lies..." Black Horse felt that his eyes might be seeing things. How could she have so many sins? Roach's sins were already extremely exaggerated, but this girl's sins were even more numerous and profound than Roach's.

In contrast, Titania was the third person after Roach to deal with her own sinful spirit. Her sinful act was to play pranks, so the opponent was also in fairy form, and then it was a fairy fighting a fairy... Titania chose a very un-fairy-like solution, which was to pick up the single-shot energy sword launcher that Roach had made that even fairies could use, and directly chase after her own sinful spirit to fight.

After being hit by several bursts of energy swords, the sinful spirit was blasted into a cloud of white mist, leaving only Leslie and Vivi in ​​the team to face their sins.

“It’s normal for us mermaids to change gender depending on our community environment and population size!” Leslie dodged the white, sticky substance spraying from her tail. “Why is this happening?”

"As I said, the ritual site for summoning sin spirits absorbs magic power based on the moral values ​​of the community environment it is in, which is naturally reinforced by the moral environment of human society, or more precisely, the community environment around the Deathwhisper Fortress."

Black Horse explained that this is why most demons in Hell can send a sinful spirit to its death with a single slap. After all, if you can still be considered sinful in an environment like Hell, Black Horse said he doesn't even know how to describe that thing.

As a bard, Leslie's combat skills were not high, and her only ranged arrows were almost harmless to her own sinful spirit. She quickly fell into Roche's trap and was swept away by a tail. While she was in mid-air, she was stuck by something like white spider silk and pulled towards the snake-haired monster, followed by a joyful mid-air execution.

The moment Leslie was pierced by the beam of light, the little witch solemnly threw out a handful of white amber, which transformed into countless strands of soul that entangled her body, temporarily fixing her soul, which was about to break off and dissipate, to her physical body. This turned her from being on the verge of death to being on the verge of death. Only after the sinful spirit dissipated did she take out a jar of healing potion and force-feed it to Leslie.

"My God!" The mermaid girl, who had just been lying there like a corpse, suddenly sat up. The dark, deep, and fantastical atmosphere made her feel like she would rather be dead. "Congratulations, you have become the team's second person to experience resurrection. How does it feel?"

"I feel like I'd rather be dead." The taste of the potion still lingered in her mouth, and the terrible pain in her body at the moment of death was real. However, Leslie's treatment was not over yet.

Livia held a handful of white amber in her palm and rubbed it vigorously. Then she used her soul essence to temporarily plug the holes in Leslie's soul, to avoid putting additional strain on the still fragile soul threads after reinforcement.

"Vivi, if it doesn't work out, you might as well just die. We still have plenty of white amber prepared." After hearing Leslie's words, the little witch nodded vigorously and took out a large bag of white amber from her luggage, indicating that it wouldn't matter if Vivi died once.

“No way~” Vivi shook her head, took off her glasses, and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, her brown eyes had turned silver-gray, and her pupils had shrunk into vertical, date-shaped pupils with a cold purple luster. Fine silver scales appeared around her eye sockets.

The braids automatically unraveled, transforming into slightly curled silver hair. The ears became leaf-shaped, and tiny jade-colored dragon horns grew out from behind the ears, encasing the hair like hair rings.

"Dragonborn? No wonder..." Black Horse pondered for a moment. Given the dragons' lifestyle, being in a ritual space in the human world is a sin, even for the act of breathing. And if some fool were to set up a ritual space of such great sin on dragon territory...

The dark horse could only say that it would be better to set it in Hell, at least the demons in Hell wouldn't have such weird XPs as dragons, and you might even be able to collect some great sin secrets.

The silvery-white dragon claws collided with the crowned dragon's tail. Wings flapped, fangs snapped, and the two behemoths fought in an astonishing display. The silver dragon swung its enormous, feather-like wings, pulling the crowned dragon away. Then, it half-lay on the ground, took a deep breath, and exhaled an even colder gas toward its opponent.

The crowned dragon quickly adjusted its posture and breathed golden flames at Vivi. The cold air and flames intertwined, and the hall was instantly covered by thick fog. Apart from the black horse, everyone could only hear the constant crashing and tearing sounds, as well as the roar of the giant beast, coming from the fog. The linear, cold dragon breath swept across the pillars, leaving behind patches of white frost.

“The Dragonborn’s transformation time is limited. She should be one of the purer bloodlines, but she’s not a true dragon.” Black Horse shook his head. “If the battle can’t be ended within 3 minutes, the young lady will have to prepare to use resurrection on her.”

"Hmm!" Livia had already gripped the white amber in her hand, waiting for Vivi to be defeated so she could bind her with soul threads and then revive her.

"Isn't she a dragon?" Roach looked at Vivi, who had transformed into a giant dragon and was now fighting.

"Well, the difference between a dragonborn and a real dragon is that their form is a transformation, while a dragon transforming into a human is a transformation. It's probably like the difference between a werewolf and a werewolf." The former is essentially a wolf, but transforms into a human through shapeshifting; the latter is essentially a human, but is forced to become a wolf due to a curse.

“The purer the bloodline of a dragon descendant, the longer it takes to transform into a dragon, and the more times it can be used.” Black Horse shook his head. “Under normal circumstances, a dragon descendant can transform once a week. Those with highly pure bloodlines can transform once every three days. If the proportion of dragon blood exceeds 1/2, that is, if only one of the grandfather, grandmother, or parents is not a dragon, then they can transform once a day, and the transformation can last for several hours.”

"However, since non-dragon bloodlines exceed 3/4, they completely lose their dragon-blooded abilities and only become [dragon-type extraordinary bloodlines]. Therefore, dragon-blooded beings are still very rare. Their lifespan is only about 3 to 4 times that of humans. The higher the proportion of non-dragon bloodlines, the shorter their lifespan. Considering the lifespan of dragons, their mating season, and the probability of having offspring with non-dragon creatures... emmmm, they are basically rare beasts."

However, because dragons have long lifespans, even if dragon descendants disappear for a while, the surviving dragon parents may create new dragon descendants.

"What's the difference between a dragonborn and a dragon? I mean, how do you tell the difference by appearance?" Roach and the others huddled in a corner with Black Horse because the noise from the two giant dragons clashing over there was a bit too loud.

"Oh, a dragon that becomes a human can only be a human. It will not retain any dragon characteristics on its body. Only the true appearance of a dragon descendant will leave obvious dragon characteristics on its body, such as dragon horns, dragon scales, and other half-dragon, half-human traits."

In other words, dragons can maintain two modes: dragon and other life forms, but they will not exhibit hybrid characteristics. Only dragon descendants have this half-dragon hybrid form.

"Agh!" Vivi screamed in agony, followed by a violent explosion. Stones rained down from the ceiling of the hall, but thankfully the explosion stopped quickly, preventing further damage to the hall's structural integrity.

"Huff~ Huff~" Vivi gasped for breath, blood overflowing from between her teeth and sliding down the corners of her mouth. Her body was covered in hideous injuries, while the crowned dragon opposite her had turned into silvery-white foamy mist and disappeared.

After the enemy disappeared, Vivi's dragon transformation was also canceled, and her body returned to its previous half-dragon form, but she was in very bad condition.

"I forgot to mention that transforming into a complete dragon puts a lot of stress on a dragon's body. After the transformation ends, the person will be weak for at least four hours, and if their bloodline purity is not high, it may take several days."

"Hmm~" Vivi smiled wryly as she looked at the stamina potion the little witch handed her, drank it all in one gulp, and then fell asleep.

"It seems this girl has pretty good blood; she'll probably only need seven or eight hours of sleep." This means the little witch and the others can only camp and rest in the hall for now.

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Useless Mermaid

The hall is not suitable for camping. It is an open area that connects four passageways to the left and right, leading to the various first-level burial chambers. These burial chambers are organized by family units, with each family having its own burial chamber, which is a square or rectangular chamber surrounded by a circular corridor.

Inside the central mausoleum were the stone coffins containing the family's ancestors, surrounded by stone coffins for the core members of the family. Ordinary members could only be buried in the outer corridor. In front of most of the coffins were altars displaying burial goods and sacrificial items, but unfortunately, these items have all disappeared after the adventurers' thorough looting.

Only open coffins, broken statues, and undead and shadow monsters that have been generated over time roam here. Most adventurers who come to the first level are not here for the treasure chests or treasures that are almost impossible to still exist in the graveyard.

Shadow monsters are formed from the influence of the magic power of the Shadow Realm. They usually carry magic cores from the Shadow Realm. These magic cores are used in alchemy, various spell rituals, and even metallurgy. Therefore, many adventurers come here for these loot.

However, regardless of the circumstances, the Black Abyss Cemetery is a [Dangerous] level place. The shadow monsters here are not something that novice or beginner adventurers can handle. Even exploration teams composed of alchemists who have hired many skilled members must proceed with extreme caution.

However, this did not include unusual combinations like Roach and Livia. The black horse lay down near the door, on a blanket spread out beside her. The half-dragon features on Vilan's body had completely faded, and she had returned to her original form, curled up in a ball and fast asleep, her wounds healing rapidly with her sleep.

"Ha~~" Livia yawned, and a thick blanket automatically spread out on the ground, wrapping her inside and turning her into a fluffy "cocoon" leaning against the black horse. "Good night~" The little girl nodded to Roach and the others.

"Goodnight, Miss~" Leslie waved her hand. She and Roach still had to deal with the campfire that hadn't been lit yet. In the end, Roach used an energy sword powered by fire elemental essence to finally get the fire going.

"Is this sword still usable?"

"It's still usable as a weapon, but not as an enchanted weapon." Roach showed Leslie the Thorn Sword. The blade itself wasn't badly damaged, but the runes on it were completely charred, and the rune sphere at the end was broken. "Unless I create a new paradigm rune and then repair all the runes on it, to be honest..."

"Why not just reforge it?" the fairy complained. The runes on the enchanted weapon were so damaged that they meant it was beyond repair. There was no other way to fix it except to reforge it.

"At the very least, it can be used as a sword." The greatest function of a sword is to be used as a sword. From the perspective of this basic function, the Thorn Sword cannot be considered completely unusable.

"By the way, if Vivi is a dragonborn, why would she hide her identity to learn alchemy?" This was also something Luo Qi was curious about. It's true that alchemists are half spellcasters, but being a dragonborn is already a supernatural profession, so there's absolutely no need for her to learn alchemy.

"Are you asking why she studied alchemy, or why she hid her identity?" Leslie didn't understand Roach's question.

"Why hide your identity?" Roach said that the reason for learning alchemy might be out of interest, but why hide your identity?

“Oh, that’s easy to explain. Dragonborn, especially those with purer bloodlines, are closer to dragons. And if she didn’t hide her identity…” Leslie paused, “which alchemical society would dare let her in!?”

The Alchemy Society has a large reserve of rare materials, including gold used to process adamantite, silver used to refine mithril, various magical gems, oriental copper, and alchemical alloys, all of which are quite tempting to dragons.

However, the dragons in this world are different from the money-grubbing creatures common in the fantasy worlds Roach knew. Dragons enjoy the process of collecting treasures and the symbolic meaning of those treasures. Simply put, their purpose in collecting wealth is similar to their purpose in collecting achievements.

Therefore, each dragon can remember the origin and history of every gold coin in its nest, and they will use these treasures to carefully decorate their nests. Stealing and destroying dragon nest treasures is probably no different from wielding a sledgehammer on a homebody's house full of figurines, expensive limited editions, and various rare and out-of-print collectibles.

If you want to destroy its collection, the only way is to step over its corpse. However, because of this attribute, dragons will also give each other some of their treasures as gifts, but there is a major prerequisite—you have to be regarded as a like-minded buddy by the dragon to receive this treatment.

“Some dragons collect so much that they will give some to others, like preaching, but dragons who do this are usually considered oddballs among dragons.” Leslie said that Vivi was probably one of those oddballs among dragons.

"As for why she wanted to learn alchemy, I don't know. It could be out of interest, or it could be for some other purpose. Or it could simply be like other dragons, who thought that alchemy could really produce gold."

"But as a dragon descendant, how come she's still just an apprentice after studying alchemy for so long?"

"That's the problem. Whether it's dragonborn, dragons, or almost all long-lived species, they all learn very slowly, especially dragonborn. I mean, they learn things very slowly, especially those skills that don't belong to the traditional dragon race."

Because dragonborn with high-purity bloodlines, like true dragons, can acquire some knowledge, skills, and spell-like abilities from their bloodline, these abilities also hinder them from learning other things.

It's roughly like this: the knowledge you've learned tells you to go right, but your instincts tell you to go left. Very few dragons and dragonborn can overcome and adapt to this situation, or rather, it requires considerable perseverance to do so.

"However, if you think about it, you're the weakest among us." It's normal for fairies to be weak. After all, Titania's main job is to act as an extra mobile light source and to be responsible for releasing fairy tricks. Only Leslie has decent archery skills and can use a regular short bow, but she doesn't have any special abilities or combat skills. In this respect, she might not even be as good as Roach.

“What can I do? I’m just a bard.” Leslie spread her hands. “My main job is to travel from one city to another, to see new things, and to compose new songs and poems. Fighting is not something I’m good at.”

"So how much money do you usually earn from performing?"

"..." Leslie turned her face away. "Can we not talk about this?"

"Have you learned your battle song yet?"

"..." Clearly, they hadn't learned it at all.

"Are you really a mermaid? I've heard that mermaids have beautiful singing voices and outstanding artistic talents." So much so that they become slave commodities favored by various nobles and princes. Well, maybe they have some other uses besides being court jesters and singers.

As for the idea that mermaids' immortal flesh and blood are cursed, there were nobles with such ideas in Niel Riley's time, but now no noble would covet mermaid flesh and blood. The curse is not much different from the immortality potion of the Witch of Youth.

“I really am a mermaid, if you don’t believe me I’ll conjure up my tail,” Leslie rolled her eyes.

"You have no charm, you can't sing the siren's song, and you're not good at anything. Tell me the truth, were you driven out of your tribe because you're a complete failure?!"

“How could that be!” Leslie retorted loudly. “What do you human nobles know? Especially those nobles in the capital, why didn’t you expel them?!” It has to be said that this reason was very convincing.

"You need to understand that in a group, if there is an individual who is useless and knows nothing, yet still lives well, then he will never be driven out. The only one who will be driven out is the capable guy who can survive on his own."

“I understand. Just like in a company, the big shots who actually do the work are the easiest to be laid off, while those who just coast along may not necessarily get into trouble. As for those who do nothing, they can keep getting promoted.” Roach understood this strange phenomenon very well.

"As long as you know."

"So, which one are you?" If you're the kind who gets things done, you shouldn't be completely clueless; and if you're the kind who doesn't do anything, you shouldn't be thrown out here as a bard.