Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Speaking of which, apart from those little skeletons, we haven't seen any trace of undead creatures along the way."

"There are no undead creatures in the upper part of the second level; they are all concentrated in the third level." Before the Black Abyss Cemetery was exposed and became a [dangerous area], the adventurers in the towns built on the surface only explored up to the second level and did not find many undead creatures. It was not until they discovered the third level that the Black Abyss Cemetery tore the earth apart and became what it is now.

"Need a rest?"

"Let's talk about it at the next rest stop." The captain took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time. "We still have enough resources and energy right now, so let's speed up as much as possible." When resources are scarce later on, we'll be in the lower, more dangerous areas. Speeding up then would be tantamount to suicide. As expert professionals, they wouldn't make that mistake.

Roach and his group made this mistake: they were leisurely making their way when supplies were plentiful, but by the time supplies ran out, they were already in the lower levels, where it was most difficult to escape and explore quickly.

"There seems to be some movement down below?" The bard, who was at the back of the group and carried a bow and arrows with a dagger at his side, tilted his head and listened. "Are you sure we're the first group?" He looked at the leader. "There seems to be... music playing down below, like other adventure groups."

“I’m certain we’re the only ones who accepted the commission, considering the fortress gates only opened yesterday.” The captain shook his head. “Perhaps they’re adventurers from the Kingdom of Rada.” After all, the Black Abyss Cemetery is a [Perilous] ruin accessible to both countries.

"Whoosh!" "Death Beetle!" A giant beetle covered in jet-black iron armor emerged from the cave, its body covered in numerous barbed spikes, and a cloud of purplish-red plague mist spewed out from the pores on its legs.

"Beware of the plague cloud!" The alchemist decisively lit the incense burner beside him, allowing the incense, which could suppress and dissipate the plague cloud to a certain extent, to spread. This technique was of little use to ordinary people. Even if the plague cloud was fully neutralized and suppressed, it would still be enough to kill an ordinary person. The difference was whether they would die on the spot or struggle for several weeks before finally succumbing to their illness.

However, for adventurers and spellcasters, the effects of this magical plague are not so threatening after being neutralized and suppressed.

"Clang!" The sword blade struck the thin insect legs but nothing happened. The warrior, who had anticipated this, rolled under the insect's belly and used his shield to forcefully push it upwards. "Lift!" His arm muscles bulged, [Supernatural Power] was activated, and the giant beetle, weighing at least half a ton, was lifted up and flipped over.

"Make way!" The battle priestess sprinted forward two steps, her iron boots making a dull thud, her armor plates clattering as she charged forward, chanting a prayer rapidly, "In the name of my Lord!"

"Slay evil!" The fanged blade pierced the vulnerable abdomen of the insect with force, and foul-smelling insect blood spurted out, burning away on the armor covered with a layer of golden flames.

"Squeak!" The withering beetle struggled violently, spewing out more corrosive plague mist. A warrior got a little bit on it, and a large black patch of death spots appeared on his arm. He had to drink a bottle of disease-dispelling potion to barely stop the decay of his entire arm.

After struggling and screaming for a while, the beetle finally stopped moving. The dead beetle didn't have any valuable materials, or rather, it had just sprayed away the most valuable parts. Only its metallic black shell was worth something, but considering its weight, it wasn't worth taking out.

"As expected of a dangerous place, even things like this appear in the upper levels..." The warrior exclaimed, extending his arm to let the alchemist treat his wound.

“The battles ahead will be even tougher,” the captain said in a low voice. “Next, we will have to deal with shadow dragons and possible undead monsters. Even if everything goes smoothly, we only plan to explore up to the third level entrance this time. The Misty Plains is not a place we can go now.”

Rushing into a place shrouded in ghostly mist without sufficient intelligence or a way to retreat at any time is simply courting death.

In the rest area, Roach poked at the campfire, while Leslie, clutching a lute, constantly adjusted the tone. "Has anyone ever told you that your playing is really awful?" she murmured. But some things aren't the instrument's fault.

"I just don't have the money to buy a better instrument. Besides, how can you expect an instrument to sound good if you don't practice? Oh well, I'll just get a new violin another day."

"No, your lute playing is just awful, but I suspect Livia would be so scared by your violin playing that she wouldn't be able to sleep. You'd be the one to comfort her then?" The little girl usually has a very healthy sleep schedule and can fall asleep whenever she wants, but if she gets scared, it will take a lot of effort to get her to sleep.

"Never mind then." Leslie thought about it and decided to give up the idea. Putting the little girl to sleep was easy, but the real challenge was getting all the living things around her to sleep as well.

"It seems there are new adventurers up there." Even without Vivi's reminder, everyone saw a withering beetle swinging its limbs as it fell from the sky, crashing onto the outer balcony. After smashing half of the balcony, it landed on the lowest floor.

Now Roach understands why so many of the lower-level roads and stone bridges are damaged. How could they not be? The rocks blasted down by the misdirected spells from the upper levels, and the corpses of monsters knocked down, are all falling down!

Chapter Sixty-Three: The background music should be playing now, and you actually are?!

"Blazing Glue!" The alchemical potion in the small test tube was thrown at the "black cloud" in the air, and a ball of flame rose up in an instant. "Buzz~" More inkball bees frantically swooped down towards the team, showing no fear of the damage from this little bit of alchemical flame.

Even as a considerable number of bees were burned to charred remains on the ground, they continued to surge forward relentlessly. "Damn it, have these insects gone mad?!" the warrior roared, slamming his heavy shield into the ground with his left hand. His muscles bulged, and a certain pulse could be seen surging beneath his skin. "Flame King's Fortress!"

The shield and body burst into flames simultaneously, with emerald green flames swirling around the weapons and armor. Any Inkball Bees that came near and touched even a trace of it would be completely burned to ashes.

As a family-inherited [bloodline combat skill], it rapidly consumes the user's physical strength and life force to form a life flame, strengthening the user's defense and quickly healing all injuries until the life force in the bloodline and the user's physical strength are exhausted.

"Hurry up, I can't hold on much longer!" the warrior shouted back. The arcane mage, sweating profusely, sketched runes in the air. A preliminary runic ritual field was slowly taking shape around his body. Dust and the wind that echoed from the abyss gradually gathered in the ritual field, imbued with supernatural power.

"The Lord will not let the righteous shed their blood!" The battle priestess gasped as she erected a new shield to protect the mage. Her body was also covered in Inkball Bees, which frantically tried to pierce her armor with their stingers. Although the leather at the joints was punctured, most of the metal parts of the armor still managed to defend against the Inkball Bees' piercing attacks.

"Get out of my way!" The Battle Priestess forcefully swung her sword, driving away some of the Inkball Bees. The power of her blessing formed a golden armor on her body, shaking off all the insects crawling on her.

"There are too many of these bugs! Where did they come from?!" The bard pulled out a new tube of blazing glue and threw it out. The effect was still good, but it still couldn't scare the bugs away.

"Alright!" The sorcerer slammed his staff down, and the twelve runes around his body lit up. Then, they illuminated all the rune strings in the entire ritual field. Dust and wind flowed within the ritual field, transforming into countless sharp blades that shredded the insects that entered the ritual field, like an ever-expanding dagger winch or a millstone.

Tiny insect corpses and slime flew everywhere. When the secret ritual ended, the insect corpses fell from the sky like rain, hitting the armor and stone bridge with a crackling sound.

"Inkball Bees, aren't these creatures from hell? How come they're here, and there are so many of them?"

"Someone came and angered them," the captain said, pointing to the beehives at the end of the stone bridge. All three beehives showed signs of fire, with layers upon layers of dead insects piled on top, having sacrificed their lives to extinguish the fire in the nests.

"This is... damn it." The black ball bees, whose nests have been attacked, will naturally go on a rampage against any creature that enters their territory. We were just unlucky enough to enter at this time.

“However, it’s not all bad luck,” the bard said, examining the hive. He pulled a short knife from his waistband and forcefully cleaved the hive open. “Look, there’s honey, and a queen bee!” The plump queen bee rubbed her sharp forelegs, warning the intruder, but to no avail. The dagger pierced her waist, severing her upper body and plump egg sac.

The poet, wiping the insect slime from his hands, held a rose-colored crystal about the length of a finger in his palm. "100 gold coins, three beehives here, which means there are at least three of these, and also honey of considerable value."

Ordinary honey is already expensive. Even though beekeepers exist in the world, poor agricultural production means they can't have thousands of acres of flower fields to harvest honey. They can only rely on natural forests and wildflowers in the countryside to chase bees around, so honey production is very limited...

The honey brewed by these magical creatures, such as the Inkball Bee, has extraordinary properties, making it more than ten times the price of ordinary honey. Its purpose is not simply to make desserts; it is an extremely expensive potion ingredient, an essential component in the manufacture of potions that treat burns, severe infections, and red fever.

At the same time, when making other potions, adding this honey will not destroy the potion's effects, but will improve the potion's taste and texture to a certain extent. Of course, given Livia's financial situation, she generally does not consider adding similar ingredients to improve the taste and texture when making potions.

As for the Hell Rift, the priestess said she wasn't good at sealing things and could only draw a circle with [pure salt] as a simple barrier.

Pure salt is not table salt; it actually refers to the ash from burning wood and plants with sacred fire, which is potassium salt. In this world, it is used as a cheap and readily available material for exorcising and sealing evil spirits. As for its effect, well, it can only be said to have some effect. Expecting you to use this to draw a magic circle to bind hell rifts or hell demons is pure nonsense.

However, it cannot be said to be completely ineffective. It can continuously release a certain aura that demons do not like. Placing it on this side of the Hell Rift can cause the demon on the other side of the rift to misjudge the environment and prevent some less curious demons from coming over. It is also effective against mindless insect demons like the Inkball Bee. Its effect is roughly equivalent to the mosquito-repelling ability of Tiger Balm.

The three beehives provided the adventurer team with at least 400 gold coins worth of supplies, which is normal for a high-level adventurer team. Otherwise, the ritual materials, potions, supplies, weapon and armor maintenance costs they incurred, along with the energy and time of the six expert-level professionals, would have been a losing proposition.

Roach and his group were exceptions; the vast majority of their gains were "eaten up" by the little witch in various ways, turning into soul essence amber and various high-level magic potions.

It seems like the whole team doesn't have a single gold coin in their pockets right now, but if they actually sold all the little witch-made odds and ends they had, they could instantly earn enough to buy a manor and dozens of acres of land.

The Fire Explosion Arrow is a very special type of magical ammunition created by alchemists. Compared to the "separation of projectile and fire" method of the Mystic Mage, the alchemist's explosion rate is higher than that of Roach. On the market, one Fire Explosion Arrow or a magical ammunition of the same level is worth at least 1 gold coin. Even an expert-level adventurer team would feel bad using it.

Passing through the lower-level noble manor area, you arrive at the Abyss Garden, which connects to the third-level Black Abyss Cemetery. This is an open-air garden where the blooming silver-blue translucent flowers are exquisite, and fireflies twinkle above the sea of ​​flowers.

"Whoosh~" Livia spread her arms and twirled around in the center of the flower field. Her skirt fluttered, causing the translucent petals around her, which seemed like illusory creations, to dance and swirl. There were no monsters here; it was the last resting place for adventurers before they entered the third level.

After playing in the sea of ​​flowers for a while, Livia stopped and carefully picked up the mature flowers, gently tearing off the petals one by one, leaving only the soft, translucent white stems.

Place the petals in a flask, add 50 ml of underground spring water, and heat over a low flame until the petals are completely dissolved in the water, resulting in a cup of pale blue liquid.

"A purification solution. This will prevent us from being poisoned or contaminated by hellish magic when we eat the monsters later." Roach recognized what it was. "So, these flowers are what the book calls 'the resentment of the dead'? The illustrations are so stream-of-consciousness!"

It looked like petals and flowers made of twisted souls, and with the name, Roach always thought it was a strange and terrifying plant that grew in some kind of underworld.

The result was these beautiful, translucent, silver-blue flowers, as thin as cicada wings, with petals layered upon each other, very similar to the Lycoris radiata. The stamens in the center were slender and pale, and it was impossible to tell what they had to do with "the resentment of the dead".

“Because this flower represents the souls that cannot be led to heaven by the goddess and are left on earth,” Livia said softly.

In the beliefs of the ancient Luster, this flower represents the souls abandoned by the goddess on earth, unable to enter the heavenly kingdom, who transformed into seeds on the earth and blossomed into this flower.

So it was named "The Grudge of the Dead". In fact, it has many other names, such as "Purifying Flower" and "Soul White Flower". It usually grows in cemeteries and places with a large number of dead people, such as ancient battlefields. In a sense, this magical plant that seems to grow by feeding on the corpses of the dead is indeed... a bit eerie.

"Corpse?"

"Otherwise, where do you think all the monster corpses that fall down from above go?" Leslie pointed upwards. This sea of ​​flowers was located on a platform at the very bottom of the abyss. Theoretically, the corpses of monsters killed by adventurers on the upper levels, as well as the corpses of various dead giant bats, would fall down.

"And bat droppings," Livia added quietly. In fact, this flower doesn't have such a terrible need for nutrients. It relies more on the droppings of the large bats that live on it as nutrients. At the same time, the huge number of firefly-like underground insects that this flower attracts are the food of those large bats.

Livia poured the purification solution into the pitcher, mixed it with the wine inside, shook it well, took a small sip, and handed it to Roach. "..." Roach held the pitcher and looked at the spout. It seemed that there was still some kind of fragrance left. He hesitated for a moment and then took a sip. The wine tasted like the fragrance of the surrounding flowers.

Leslie, Vivi, and the fairy drank the wine without any hesitation. As adventurers and travelers, they weren't too pretentious at this time. Soon, Roach noticed that everyone started to smell similar to the surrounding flowers.

"Ah, I understand. This way, we won't attract too many monsters when we pass through the third level." Because a significant portion of the "human scent" on our bodies is masked by the fragrance of these flowers, it won't be as noticeable to those monsters.

“But I always feel…” Roach looked around at the surroundings: the dilapidated pillars, the dazzling sea of ​​flowers, the campfire and makeshift campsite where adventurers had rested, and the tall, sturdy white stone archway opposite the sea of ​​flowers. He felt that an ethereal soprano voice should be singing right now.

Then came the appearance of a giant monster accompanied by a long, religiously themed melody. Its name was displayed in gold cursive letters in the center of the screen, and a health bar almost the same width as the screen appeared below it, which was more in line with the current environment and scene.

"Hey, I was just about to remind you guys, but I didn't expect you to have such inspiration, Brother Roach?"

"Huh?" "Whoosh~" The stone trembled slightly. Vivi immediately switched to Dragonborn mode. Her long white hair danced in the sudden cold wind, dragon horns grew out from behind her ears, and pale white dragon scales appeared on her cheeks, neck, arms, and thighs.

Livia also put away her alchemical tools and miniature arcane furnace, holding her staff in one hand and her left hand outstretched. Roach suddenly felt a little short of breath, and the flowers under his feet withered at an alarming speed, spreading into the distance and revealing the withered bones half-buried in the soil beneath the sea of ​​flowers.

There were human bones and monster bones, but mostly monster bones. The soil turned a rusty color, and the beautiful underground flower sea instantly turned into a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood. The extracted life force gathered on the witch's staff, and a green wind swirled around it, causing the staff made of dead wood to grow tiny green leaves. Finally, a rather large pale yellow flower bloomed on the staff.

"I won't participate in this task," Black Horse said, lounging on the ground as if he were nothing more than a horse. "The main reason is that if I participate, the difficulty for you will increase. That rift is different from the one above; it's a bit bigger. If it attracts some old friends, I can only protect the young lady. You'd better pray for yourselves."

"Do you have many 'friends' in Hell?" Roach asked, turning his head while gripping the Thorn Sword, emphasizing the word "friends." Black Horse thought for a moment, "I wouldn't say you're famous throughout the world, but you could say you have many distinguished guests."

Okay, Roach understands. This guy is probably so infamous in the second level of hell that even passing dogs would try to bite him.

"Boom!" The rock was overturned, and a train-sized creature crawled out of the cave. Its purplish-red carapace was covered with spiraling magic patterns, and its long and short tentacles searched for its prey in the air.

Its tail has long whiskers like a swallow's tail, and its head has large pincers like golden pincers. Its body is covered with black spirals, and in the center of the spirals are raised bumps that spin around, looking like human eyes staring at Roach and his companions in the dim firelight.

Countless pale arms extend from beneath the body, slender and flexible, with sharp, claw-like fingers. As they move, they leave behind "footprints" on the soil and rocks, resembling human handprints.

"Holy crap, is it the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord?!" Do you know what's even more terrifying than this bizarre and sanity-dropping appearance? It's that instead of insect legs, it has human hands, which means that it's like the Thousand-Armed Guanyin, capable of wielding a large number of weapons!

These weapons are clearly relics left behind by previous adventurers, with broken swords and even the remains of monsters among them.

"Thousand-Handed Insect"

"..." Centipedes are also known as thousand-legged worms. When Luo Qi heard this name, he thought it was just a different translation of "hands" and "feet". But now that he saw it, hey, it really is a thousand-handed worm!

"Thousand hands and eyes, golden claws and bronze armor, keep it up, this is a panic-level monster." Luo Qi had no doubt about Old Ma's words. This was definitely a panic-level monster. Even if it didn't bite, just its appearance and shape would scare the nearby residents away overnight if you threw it outside the village!

Are you sure this thing is edible?

"Hey, you're right. The number one delicacy on the second level, I almost wiped them out of existence. But I've never eaten one this fat before. Only in the mortal realm can you feed such plump insect demons~" Hell doesn't have the good thing of adventurers who are rich in energy and nutrition and automatically have food delivered to their door.

"Its palms have poison glands; if you touch them, you'll die. Oh, Roach, don't worry about it. That kind of poison doesn't cause serious damage to the body, and it's easy to revive it."

"Don't go head-to-head with its big claws. Even ordinary magical weapons can't withstand those things. Look at the weapon it's holding; it broke it with its own big claws."

"The eyes on its carapace can release simple spell-like effects, mainly illusions and auxiliary spells. So, little fairy, you should also be careful, it will prioritize prey that is just the right size to swallow whole." The Thousand-Handed Insect's mouthparts are not large, which means it must cut its prey into small pieces to eat, and a fairy of this size is just the right size for it to swallow whole.

Whether it was because the commentary time was paused or because the giant thousand-handed worm sensed something ominous, it hesitated and didn't pounce immediately. However, as time passed, hunger and the alluring temptation emanating from Livia finally made the thousand-handed worm unable to resist. It quickly crawled towards Roach and his group, and hundreds of hands made a terrifying rustling sound as they stepped on the soil.

"Clang!" Leslie's arrow struck the carapace but nothing happened. Although the Fire Explosion Arrow sprayed out a large amount of scorching fire essence, the bronze-like carapace completely ignored the burning of the magical flames.

"Oh right, it has high fire resistance, I just forgot!"

"Why the hell didn't you say so earlier!" Leslie decisively went around to the back of a broken pillar, and then heard the sound of metal clashing against metal coming from the pillar. The millipede's upper body held a sharp blade that struck the pillar, leaving a deep cut. "If you get hit like that, you'll be covered in bruises!"

"What other resistances are high?" "Blunt weapon resistance is average," Black Horse thought for a moment and said. Simply put, apart from blunt weapon resistance being average, everything else is high. "Explosion!?" Roach dodged the swung iron shear-like swallowtail.

"I don't know, I've never used explosive weapons."

"Squeak!" The millipede's target was clear. After driving away the others, it bit down on the seemingly terrified little witch. "Squeak!!!!" The large claw collided with a layer of emerald green shield.

The witch closed her eyes, her small body trembling as she gripped her staff tightly. The emerald green leaves withered little by little from the bottom, maintaining the shield that protected her. The surface of the shield was covered with intricate patterns and runes.

"Don't worry about the young lady. Her triple life shield is impossible to break in less than half an hour. Even if you asked the old master, it would take her half an hour to prepare a forbidden-level secret spell to break it."

Roach observed the leaves and vines on the little witch's staff, as well as the pale yellow flower, and admitted that Old Ma was right. At this rate of decay, the millipede would need to bite for at least another two hours before it could be exhausted.

Chapter Sixty-Three: I'll Help You!

"Whoosh!" The iron-scissor-like tail swept across, raising a cloud of dirt mixed with bone fragments, forcing Vivi to jump back to avoid it. Her hands had grown sharp claws more than an inch long, and a snow-white dragon tail had grown from under her skirt. This was the maximum transformation she could make before fully transforming into a dragon.

"No, we can't get close at all!" The Thousand-Handed Insect has too many arms. No matter which direction Roach and his group attack from, they will be countered. Fortunately, the giant insect is completely attracted to Livia and is tightly wrapped around her shield. It uses its golden claws to clamp down and strikes with its thousand hands, smashing green sparks onto the emerald green shield.

"Ugh~" The little girl's body trembled even more violently, her eyes tightly closed. It seemed that she was only able to stay upright by holding onto the staff with both hands. Her light golden hair flew up as the magic power continued to increase, like a golden curtain.

Complex runes lit up the edges of her short cloak, and golden rune threads wrapped around her staff and forearms. Even the runes on the hem of her plain, thin white dress lit up.

Clearly, these clothes and hats that don't usually serve any purpose are also some kind of arcane enhancement equipment. The intertwined emerald green light streams wrap around the little witch like vines, constantly providing additional defensive strength to the shield.

"Did she max out all her combat skills in defense?!" Vivi exclaimed, noting the alarmingly high number of defensive techniques activated on the little guy. "Didn't she also max out attack?"

Although her offensive skills are clearly not as proficient as Livia's defensive skills, otherwise any other arcane mage would have been able to easily unleash a powerful spell to chop the Thousand-Handed Worm into mincemeat on the spot.

"Cover me, Leslie!"

"Alright!" With a whoosh, the last explosive arrow struck the head of the Thousand-Handed Insect. Fire essence surged into its wide-open mouth, and the purplish-red centipede instantly curled up and released the little witch's shield.

"Bang!" Roach threw the Spirit Crystal and Storm Crossbow at the Thousand-Handed Insect. "Explode!"

"Boom!" The spirit crystal and the storm crossbow were instantly detonated by Roach's innate ability. In the violent explosion, several pale arms were blown high into the air.

"The explosive attack was effective!"

How many alchemical bombs do you have left?

"That's it." Roach's face turned pale. He had used up all his explosive alchemical bombs. He hadn't brought many of these alchemical weapons that could easily bury everyone alive because he was considering the cave. He had also used up his Secret Source Paradigm. Now, the only thing he had left was this Thorn Sword that he could still use as a sword. Unfortunately, even though the Thorn Sword was forged from alchemical alloy, it was difficult to cut through the Thousand-Handed Worm's carapace.

"Get out of my way!" Vivi shouted, leaping into the air. As her claws gripped the carapace of the Thousand-Handed Insect, she transformed into a pale white dragon. The dragon's head was long and narrow, with silver-white mane on its neck, which was even carefully braided into a row of braids. Its tail was like a fish, with rainbow-like colors. To be honest, it could be considered a "beauty" among dragons.

Vilandella (real name, dragon language: Ash Dragon) opened her mouth full of fine teeth, and the sphincter in her chest cavity converted her life essence into the dragon's unique energy, which mixed with the wind and fire elements she inhaled (cold magic belongs to the fire element) and "whoosh~!" A breath strong enough to freeze the atmosphere poured in from the gaps in her carapace that Roch had blown open.

Having suffered such a severe blow, the Thousand-Handed Insect finally released the Little Witch and turned to bite Vilandella. However, the pale white dragon suddenly flapped its wings forward, and the hurricane and impact caused the Thousand-Handed Insect's head to tilt to the side, and it missed its bite.

The dragon claws gripping the Thousand-Handed Insect pressed down sharply with the potential energy gained from the brief moment of airborne flight, converting it into kinetic energy to slam the giant insect's head against the solid rock at the edge of the garden.

The ancient stone bricks shattered instantly, and Vivi also deactivated her dragon transformation mode. She could only transform for a maximum of 15 minutes. The longer the transformation time, the more her life essence was consumed, which manifested as her stamina being rapidly depleted. At the same time, using dragon-like abilities such as breath attack would also reduce the transformation time.