Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Huff... huff..." Vivi gasped for breath, trembling as she pulled out a bottle of stamina potion and drank it down. The Thousand-Handed Insect Demon, dazed from being hit, shook its head violently. At that moment, Leslie had already reached its side, grabbed the little witch, and ran away.

"Huh!?" The little witch was stunned, looking somewhat dazed. "Don't just stand there, use any powerful attack magic you have!" But it was no use. In this unexpected situation, her mind went completely blank. She tried several times but couldn't cast any reliable spells until Leslie ran to the side of the black horse and calmed down.

"Lock!" The earth swelled, stones flew, and chains formed by the wind and earth bound the giant thousand-handed worm like thousands of tentacles. However, the physical strength of these chains was too weak, which was also Livia's greatest weakness. Most of her magic relied on the surrounding things, and the effects were related to the properties and strength of the things themselves, unless she used proper arcane magic.

However, even with the witch's abilities, the required incantation, ritual time, and ritual props would all be necessary. Moreover, her secret ritual spells... with all points allocated to defense, only one point in defense would be needed, and the rest could be left to a certain horse-headed demon.

The Thousand-Handed Insect struggled and swayed violently, causing the soil and wind locks that formed the chains to continuously crumble. Although more soil tentacles kept wrapping around it at the little witch's summons, the effect was terrible.

"Down!" The witch angrily clenched her small fist and pulled down hard. The huge broken stone bridge above the garden crashed down, and the screams of someone could be faintly heard in the distance.

The boulder crashed into the Thousand-Handed Insect, its copper-colored carapace emitting a crisp metallic clang. The thousands of eyes on it emitted purple halos, and each beam of light formed a swamp-like purple circle in the area it struck.

This tactic would obviously severely damage the environment around the nest, making it difficult for the Thousand-Handed Worm to disguise itself and hunt, but now that it was cornered, it didn't care at all. Each tumor-like protrusion could release a spell-like effect; some were purple halos that corroded the rocks on the ground; some were jets of highly toxic corrosive liquid; and others were projectiles of lightning and high-intensity piercing flames.

Each eye-like tumor can only unleash its spell effect once before fading. While the recovery time is unknown, judging from the Thousand-Handed Insect's violent struggle, the cost to it is certainly not ordinary. The adventurer who had just avoided the plunging stone bridge watched in astonishment at the battle unfolding in the garden below.

"Holy crap, a centipede, how can it grow so big!?" A normal centipede is only a few meters long, but this thing in front of us is almost 30 meters long, and its body width is seven or eight times that of a normal centipede.

"Captain?" The battle priestess looked at the captain, who nodded slightly. The adventurers below were clearly out of ammunition and supplies. Although their mages were still holding on, one of the three main combatants was panting heavily, clearly exhausted.

Another alchemist-looking fellow was fighting with a sword, clearly having exhausted all his alchemical tools. The last archer's quiver was empty, and as for the fairy hiding beside her mount, no one considered her a member of the fighting force.

"Don't panic!" The battle priestess jumped down from the stone bridge. "I'm here to help you!" The impact of the woman in full plate armor jumping from the broken bridge, which was at least twenty meters high, caused her fang-splitting blade to pierce directly into the carapace of the Thousand-Handed Insect. "Demon! Slay it!"

The light of grace spread out like wings behind his body. The black horse beside him silently turned its head away, not looking at the blinding light. "I hate this stuff from the Holy Lord. It's too dazzling!"

"Stone prison!" The broken stones that formed the chains flew up and crashed down on the Thousand-Handed Worm, burying its hindquarters. "That mage, reinforce the stone prison!"

"Huh?" The little witch paused for a moment, released her hand, and turned to look at the stone cage at the tail of the Thousand-Handed Insect.

"Don't try to fix its whole body, first lock down its waist and tail to create a blind spot for attack!" As an expert-level adventure mage, he may not be as skilled as Livia, but his use of arcane spells and tactics is clearly more than a level above Livia's.

"Hmm!" "Lock!" The little witch changed her target, and countless mud tentacles wrapped around the waist of the Thousand-Handed Insect, with mud and bones seeping into the cracks of the rocks.

"From fossils to steel!" The sorcerer threw out a handful of refined iron powder used as a magical medium, and a ritual field unfolded around the stones, turning the rocks and soil as solid as steel.

"Iron Defense!" Livia slammed her staff down, "Giant Tree Regeneration!" The former was a proper elemental arcane spell, originally a defensive spell to strengthen shields and armor, but Livia chose the tentacles as the target of the enhancement, and the mud tentacles that could be easily broken by the Thousand-Handed Insects suddenly became incredibly flexible.

Then the pale yellow flowers on the staff withered at an alarming rate, and the withered flower roots in the soil quickly sprouted again, with countless vines and grass stems further strengthening the tentacles.

Furthermore, it is a healing spell. Every time the Thousand-Handed Insect breaks free from the vines' restraints, the severed vines will heal again, and with each healing, they become even more resilient and difficult to tear.

With its entire rear half of its body stuck, the Thousand-Handed Insect can only attack enemies within a 180-degree radius in front of it, and cannot attack enemies behind it. The stone prison resembling a grave mound and the earth tentacles summoned by the Little Witch become the best attack channels.

The warrior climbed up the back of the Thousand-Handed Insect using the mud tentacles in two steps, and swung his sword to forcefully chop down the pale white hands connected to the gaps in the carapace. The greatest threat of the Thousand-Handed Insect is these arms that can use weapons and are highly venomous. Once the hands are cut off, it becomes a live target.

After resting for a while, Vivi finally caught her breath and climbed onto the back of the Thousand-Handed Insect. She gripped the carapace with her dragon claws and climbed up. "Give me a hand!"

"Whoosh!" The bard and captain, still on the stone bridge, fired at the head of the Thousand-Handed Insect, forcing the giant insect to lower its head slightly to allow its carapace to receive the arrows. Vivi seized the opportunity to climb onto the head of the Thousand-Handed Insect, transforming back into her dragon form, her claws gripping the golden pincers on either side.

Pale dragonfire poured in from its head mouthparts, the flames billowing and the bronze-colored carapace gradually softening in the heat. When the dragonfire stopped, ash fell from the gaps in the carapace of the Thousand-Handed Insect's head, and finally, the enormous insect demon collapsed to the ground.

"Dragonborn?" The arcane mage, slowly climbing down from the stone bridge, looked at Vivi, who had returned to human form, then turned and nodded to his captain, implying that this guy's bloodline was very pure, meaning his combat power was extraordinary.

"This monstrous thing is really big!" The battle priestess kicked the Thousand-Handed Insect that had collapsed to the ground.

"You are……"

"We are the 'Ferrymen of the Styx' team, commissioned by Viscount Carius to investigate and map the ruins." After the previous upheaval, the terrain and monster distribution within the ruins have changed significantly. For example, this Thousand-Handed Worm is an example. Further mapping is needed to provide a safe environment for the subsequent large-scale investigation.

"Are you adventurers from the Kingdom of Rada?"

“No, we’re not even adventurers,” Roach shrugged. Indeed, none of us were adventurers; even Leslie didn’t have an adventurer’s license.

"Then..." How did you get through the gate? Those officers aren't so easy to talk to. "We have passes issued by Karius, we're here to investigate the ruins... uh, scholars."

"Scholars?" The other party was beginning to be confused. It was normal for scholars to come to the ruins to investigate. The ancient buildings, murals, and remaining stone tablets were all valuable academic assets. However, shouldn't they only be allowed to enter after the adventurers had finished surveying and mapping?

After all, intellectuals with a certain level of knowledge are very valuable in this world, even if they are just ordinary people who are good at practical matters but do not have supernatural knowledge.

"Want to travel together?" When you encounter other adventurers with decent strength during your adventure, it is indeed possible to temporarily team up and travel together. However, that is on the premise that the environment ahead will be more severe, and more people means more strength.

"No, thank you," Roach politely declined. Vivi was exhausted, and Livia's dazed appearance showed that she had also expended a lot of energy. If a conflict broke out later, they would be at a great disadvantage.

"Regarding this Thousand-Handed Insect..." "According to the rules of adventurers, we, as the later joiners, should receive 30%." The other party didn't mince words. The profits divided openly according to established rules are always much more reliable than favors. Perhaps those newbies don't understand this principle, but the captains of expert-level adventure teams in this line of work certainly do.

“No problem.” Roach had no objections either. As a hellish insect demon, the Thousand-Handed Insect, like the Inkball Bee Queen, had a hellish core inside its body. This was the first time Roach had seen something inside a living being that was similar to the demonic core in the novel.

Some otherworldly monsters have this characteristic, mainly in worlds like Hell with a "rebirth" rule. For example, a demon that dies in Hell will only become a new Hell Worm, which means that its soul imprint will not truly die.

If one is killed in the mortal realm, their soul imprint and residual power will form such a condensed core. In addition to being a magical material, it can also be used to create arcane amplification weapons and extraordinary constructs with extraordinary properties.

At the same time, through specific methods, it can also be made into a bloodline implant to artificially create bloodline power, master the corresponding spell-like abilities, or made into an "Arcane Gem" to extract its extraordinary skills, so that the person who embeds the Arcane Gem can directly master the corresponding skills.

Well, the latter two uses are limited to arcane sorcerers, which is one of the main reasons why they are universally hated. This is not only because they threaten the uniqueness of the bloodline of noble bloodlines and shake the foundation of bloodline theory, but also because the process and materials used to create these things are usually not very humane.

Of course, for Hell Warlocks, they can also use this core to regenerate or summon new demons that obey their commands in a "pseudo-Hell environment." However, due to the limited energy provided by the pseudo-Hell environment, these artificial demons, known as "Demon Guardians" or "Demon Servants," will not be very powerful.

"How do we divide this thing?" The scarlet columnar crystal obviously cannot be roughly cut and divided, so we can only obtain it from one side.

"It's ours," Roach said, indicating they wanted it. "The rest are yours; you choose first."

“Alright.” The adventurers nodded, then pried open the bronze-colored carapaces, cut open the unused eye tumors from the carapaces, and pried out cat’s eye-like structures, the magic eyes of the Thousand-Handed Insect. Each one was worth about 15 gold coins, the main material for making trigger-type magic items such as wands, and also a good inlay for arcane items.

All that was left were the carapaces, golden claws, and tentacles used to craft equipment. This part was divided normally in a 3:7 ratio. The bronze-colored carapaces were not heavy. The adventurers carried the carapaces on their backs as they unloaded their prepared pack animals—retired pack animals—from the upper level.

As for the tentacles and golden claws, each person took half. As for the remaining meat, the other party obviously had no interest in it. After all, there are indeed many edible monsters. For example, more than half of harmless monsters are livestock breeds, but obviously no one wants to taste hellish monsters.

Chapter Sixty-Four: Even in the Abyss, One Must Caramelize Sugar

"How...how do you eat this?" Roach asked, pointing to the thousand-handed worm corpse in front of him. The massive worm's carapace had been peeled away, revealing pale white chunks of flesh and terrifying purplish-red veins of varying sizes, ranging from the thickness of a finger to the thickness of an arm. "This...first, remove these secretory glands."

"Secreting glands?" Roach pointed to the veins. "Yes, those glands are for growing eye tumors. You can eat them, but because they contain extraordinary ingredients, eating them is as dangerous as eating an unlabeled potion without protection."

Who knows what the effect will be? So Black Horse thinks it's best to omit this part for the sake of the young lady's stomach. If Livia really has an upset stomach or feels unwell, she will instinctively draw on the nearest maximum life source to heal herself. Okay, now the question is, which one is the largest life source among this group of people? Or rather, which one has the most blood pack?

Because these glands were so large, it wasn't complicated to pick them up with the thorn sword as a kitchen knife. The smaller veins, which were blood vessels, were picked off by Vivi with her claws.

"Then Leslie did the job of cutting the meat into chunks," cutting the insect meat into squares about the size of her palm. "Do they really have to be cut into such big pieces?"

“Yes, if we don’t cut it into such big pieces, none of you will have anything to eat later.” The little witch lit her small magical furnace, washed the potion-making cauldron clean and placed it on a shelf, then summoned a large ball of water to pour in.

"Put the meat chunks in, wait for the water to change color completely, then pour out the water. You can eat it however you like, whether you want to continue boiling or grilling it."

As the meat chunks were thrown into the pot, the water slowly changed color, and the meat chunks shrank at an astonishing rate. A thick layer of light purple oil floated on the surface of the water. After Luo Qi poured out all the oil, the original palm-sized meat chunks were reduced to a tiny bit the size of a thumb.

After washing it again, Roach threw the meat chunks into the pot, poured in a bottle of dwarven fire wine and stir-fried it, then added water, salt and a small amount of sugar, along with the non-poisonous cave mushrooms he had collected along the way, and a few pieces of the tasteless soul cakes made by the little witch as a thickener.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle~" Steam rose from the pot with a sizzling sound, and the air was filled with a strong crab smell. "It's ready to eat," the fairy said, piercing the piece of meat with a long wooden skewer to indicate that it should be ready to eat.

The liquor effectively removed the earthy taste of the insect meat, giving it a rich, fresh crab flavor. The meat was tender yet slightly chewy. The remaining insect meat, after processing, was marinated in liquor and salt. It can be roasted to make grilled meat before setting off tomorrow, and any excess can be dried and taken away.

"Delicious..." The little witch held the bowl and ate the stewed meat in it in small bites. Her evaluation was actually not reliable. For Livia, after suffering from Nier Riley's "quick-filling soft cakes", even Roach's terrible cooking could be said to be delicious.

So, Roach's eyes were fixed on Vivi and Titania. "Hmm, not bad, but the cooking skills are still lacking. They're not up to my standards at all~" The fairy put her hands on her hips, looking proud. "It's such a waste of such wonderful meat."

"Then you're in charge of cooking tomorrow's meals," Roach said mercilessly, then pointed to the mountain of worm meat that had been removed compared to the fairy's. "This pile of stuff is yours." The little fairy froze instantly, her expression visibly blank. "The taste is not bad..." Vivi gave a fairly fair assessment; considering the scarcity of ingredients, the taste was already quite good.

After finishing her meal, the little witch cleaned the crucible again, disassembled the tentacles of the Thousand-Handed Worm, squeezed the slime inside into the crucible, and began to brew a new potion. As for Roach, he was preparing to process the Hell Core Crystal. According to the methods of the Mystic Sorcerers, this kind of crystal, which inherently possesses some soul characteristics, can be used to create two essential items or tools for intermediate and advanced Mystic Sorcerers.

The first type is "extraordinary jewelry," also known as artificial bloodline implants. By implanting this crystal into the flesh and blood, one can obtain corresponding extraordinary abilities. One can directly master an extraordinary physique, extraordinary martial arts, or even bloodline power without much effort or trouble. However, compared to bloodlines and extraordinary powers that can grow, the abilities provided by this jewelry are fixed.

Essentially an implant, it allows the Mystic Mage to disguise themselves as a Super Knight or a noble of bloodline, avoiding the inconvenience of revealing their identity. At the same time, it is also a means for the Mystic Mage to modify their followers and increase their own abilities and power.

The second type is what Roach is currently working on: "Arcane Jewels". If the Extraordinary Jewel is a high-tech prosthetic limb, then the Arcane Jewel is simply a gun. It allows the holder to master a special skill without any prerequisites, but that skill is the only one that can be mastered.

The rose-colored crystals were gradually covered with runes under the carving knife. If the previous arcane sorcerers and alchemists were similar and leaned more towards chemistry, then this one was closer to the electronics that Roach knew.

These patterns are the circuits, and the other extraordinary materials and secret essences that need to be inlaid and combined later are the components. However, he is still a long way from understanding the knowledge involved, so he cannot design circuit templates and functions on his own yet. He can only combine the more mature parts from the book.

Roach's creations, known as "Arcane Quiver," produce a varying number of specific magical arrows at a time, storing them within a spatial quiver and launching them via ranged weapons. Unlike Roach's previous creations, these magical arrows require no physical carrier; they belong to the skills of mages specializing in otherworldly mystical sources.

Essentially, the so-called arcane quiver is a small spatial pocket connected to different interdimensional micro-rifts, thus maintaining the stability of this micro-space quiver over a long period. Similarly, because it is essentially a spell, a transcendent skill, it doesn't require Roch to consume arcane essence to fill it.

Once all the runes have been inscribed, the next step is to light up and activate them one by one. Unlike the extraordinary jewels, which have no growth potential, the arcane gems have a certain growth capacity. They can further expand the runes and add new abilities and enhancements by lighting up and activating more rune modules.

However, this growth is limited, and the maximum limit will not exceed the limit of the otherworldly condensed core crystal, which is the main material. As a Thousand-Handed Insect Demon of the second layer of Hell, this Hellish condensed core crystal is enough to provide Roach with a maximum of five expansion slots. Including the initial slot, Roach can theoretically master the six core effects and five expansion effects of the Arcane Quiver spell.

The first core rune area he activated was the "Rock Arrow," a very useful rune in the underground region. It was an incredibly complex octagonal structure made up of tiny jets representing the earth element, with the "central processing unit" of the system at its center.

Luo Qi carefully filled the slender gap with earth elemental essence bit by bit, placed the "chip" made by the little witch, a secondary bursting rune, into the center of the eight-pointed star, and lit up the dense rune array on one side of the entire hexagonal body.

“Useless mermaid, give me your bow.” Roach took out the longbow that Leslie had found in the armory of the Deathwhisper Fortress, disassembled it completely, taking apart both the bowstring and the bow arms, and then embedded a hexagonal prism-shaped arcane gem into the grip, like the cylinder of a revolver.

The remaining processing was left to Livia. Under the little witch's wave of her magic wand, the scattered parts were reassembled, and the material of the bow arm twisted and deformed rapidly, eventually forming a uniquely shaped longbow without a bowstring.

"Flicking this crystal can switch between different magic arrows, but I've only made one kind so far. I'll wait until I get the materials before making the rest, and I still need to practice the subsequent processing."

The more functional modules are added, the greater the pressure on the entire crystal will be. Roach was afraid that he might accidentally break this precious material, which was worth at least 300 to 400 gold coins each.

Leslie tested the feel of the new weapon, pressing her thumb against the crystal surface. Following some information transmitted by the crystal, she reached out and hooked her right hand onto the area between the bow arms, slowly pulling it back. Countless small and sharp rocks appeared out of thin air at her fingertips, forming a rotating arrow composed of countless sharp stone fragments, filled with the power of the earth.

The rock arrow has two functions. First, it has extremely high impact force. Despite its thinness, the impact force is comparable to that of a light field siege crossbow. Second, after hitting the target, it will cause splash damage to targets within 5 to 10 feet, making it especially effective against large monsters.

The reason Roach did this was that, compared to other arcane arrows, rock arrows consumed the least amount of energy. Like arcane spells, these gems consumed the power of the surrounding earth element to create magical arrows and store them in their pocket space. Therefore, arcane arrows that consumed a lot of energy were not suitable at the moment. On the contrary, since they were underground, the last thing they lacked was the power of the earth element.

This mysterious jewel has made up for the team's biggest weakness: the bard Leslie's combat ability. Otherwise, with her current combat ability, she would really only be a burden to the team.

As for Roach himself, he didn't need to keep the Arcane Jewel for use. As an Arcane Mage, he had many combat paradigms to use. The biggest advantage of the Arcane Jewel for an Arcane Mage was that it could make him look like an arcane mage, and it wouldn't extinguish his power on the spot after he used up his essence.

However, this is actually the least worrisome thing in this team. Whether it's Roach, Livia, or Vivi, they have all studied alchemy and refining techniques, so they don't lack essence. On the contrary, the surrounding "clean energy" is not sufficient because of the little witch, who is a huge power consumer.

Roach chose the Arcane Quiver instead of the simpler and more direct "Exploding Fireball" or "Lava Blast" for this reason. The biggest advantage of the Arcane Quiver is that it can be used to create "Rock Arrows" when there is plenty of earth element around, so that when the little witch starts to cast a large arcane spell, this skill will be rendered useless because it cannot compete with the little witch's control.

The amount of fire and other elements underground is already not abundant. If Livia uses her unparalleled control and elemental affinity to compete with you for the limited use of elements, it will really turn into a scene of "extreme teammate annihilation".

Unlike the expert team, who were full of energy, Roach and his group had to stay put and rest for more than two days. This was mainly because Roach needed to create new alchemical tools and secret source equipment. Even with Vivi's help in refining the insect shells and collected materials, it still took a lot of time.

Besides that, the little witch's stamina was also terrible. The previous battle and the subsequent creation of "Mysterious Jewels" and modification of Leslie's bow and arrow made her sleep for a whole day before she could recover. Even two days later, she still had a dull look in her eyes and a blank expression on her face.

The insect meat, marinated in firewood, hung on a makeshift drying rack, resembling strings of beautiful red coral beads. Its dark red surface gleamed with a greasy sheen, the fat clinging tightly to the meat. Leslie removed the pieces and placed them into her empty ration backpack. This dried insect meat had a sweet, rich aroma and was quite filling, but it didn't taste as good as stewed meat; however, it was perfectly adequate as dry rations.

During his break, Roach replenished his Stormcrossbow's ammunition using copper insect shells. The Stormcrossbow itself wasn't particularly sophisticated; he could simply melt down the remains and make another one. One by one, small copper-colored squares were loaded into the 8x8 magazine; 64 Hellfire Missiles were sure to bring endless surprises to ordinary monsters!

"That's about it. Pack your things and see if you've forgotten anything." Roach lifted Livia onto Old Ma's back. Her two small, white feet kicked him unhappily, meaning that she could climb up by herself and didn't need someone to carry her like a child.

Leaving the completely destroyed garden, you walk down a narrow path lined with broken pillars of varying heights on both sides. In the middle of the path is a dried-up waterway, which seems to have once flowed water down into the bottom of the rift valley below.

The passageway was very long, at least four or five hundred meters long, with a platform every hundred meters or so. In the center of each platform was a circular, blurry carved seal. Luo Qi examined it carefully and determined that it was very old, but he didn't know which era it corresponded to.

After all, he hadn't systematically studied the local history, and besides, the local area might not necessarily have a high level of expertise in archaeology and history. Even if he had studied it once, he might not have been able to recognize it.

Walking along the alley to the end, you see large and small broken stones under your feet, which seem to be part of the long bridge that once stood at the bottom of the abyss. However, the bridge surface has now collapsed and become a discontinuous road. The bridge pillars, on the other hand, still stand, but their surfaces are covered with cracks.

This is the true bottom of the Black Abyss. The thick, purplish-black fog means that the oil lamp on the black horse's back can only illuminate an area of ​​less than five meters around, and even that is barely visible due to the fog. The markers left by adventurers along the way are also very few; it often takes several minutes to see a pillar with a bright yellow cloth tied to it or a broken weapon indicating the direction of progress.

This is the third level of the mass grave at the bottom of the abyss, where scattered skeletons are half-buried in the silt. "Buzz!"

A beam of rock arrows shot out, the sharp stone fragments striking the skeletal Grim Reaper's body, which had just stood up. This skeleton, with its metallic bones, was a calamity-level undead monster. The impact of the stone fragments far exceeded that of ordinary arrows, and the skeletal Grim Reaper was instantly thrown backward and disappeared into the mist.

"Be careful. This kind of monster has no other special characteristics, just one word: hard." All the bones in its body are made of steel. Not to mention arrows, even a large iron hammer will bounce off when it hits it. Moreover, as a skeleton, it has no vital points. If you have to say, you have to smash that steel ball-like skull. Unfortunately, even the skull of an ordinary person is quite hard except for the crown and part of the facial bones, especially the frontal bone.

The skeletal Grim Reaper's face and crown are protected by an incredibly thick layer of steel-like bones, making it insanely hard. The only reason it wasn't ranked in the Panic level is that it has virtually no offensive capabilities, only the destructive power of the broken sword it wields.

Although he was strong, he was relatively slow. After being shot down by Leslie's arrow, he struggled on the ground for a long time before he could barely get up.

"I've always been curious about how skeletons move." Without muscles as a power source, the bones themselves are just levers and do not have the ability to move on their own.

"I don't know either, you'll have to ask Miss," the black horse said, indicating that it didn't know how the undead creatures moved. It wasn't some academic master, just an invincible warrior with an iron fist.

The dense, purplish-black fog was extremely sensitive to light. Roach and his companions turned on all the lights they carried, and the fog receded a short distance away. However, this also meant that they were the most dazzling people in the area.

All monsters and undead creatures will be attracted to them, and this area, which has no fog or very little fog, is very conspicuous in areas filled with thick fog.

Chapter Sixty-Five: Mount & Blade

After passing through the canyon near the entrance to the third level, they arrived at a flat area resembling an ancient battlefield. Broken weapons and rotten flags were scattered everywhere on the ground. Almost as soon as Roach stepped in, he heard the sounds of fierce fighting coming from the mist.

"It's those adventurers from before." Taking advantage of her small size and weaker attraction to the undead, the fairy flew forward a short distance before running back to report, "They seem to have encountered a considerable number of undead monsters."

"These rotten bones are impossible to kill cleanly!" The warrior used his shield to block a rusty iron spear that was thrusting at him. Before he could finish speaking, he saw several mutilated corpses rushing towards him. These were monsters that were between the threat level and the ferocity level.

For most adventurers, spear-wielding zombie warriors and exploding zombies are things that can be cleared out little by little by a group of people working together, fighting and retreating.

"Pay attention to the formation, don't leave any openings!" These low-level undead monsters rely purely on numbers to win, while several high-level undead monsters are observing from the outside.

The combination of a powerful black knight and two abyssal shadows floating in mid-air is a huge test even for an expert-level adventure team. However, before they can fight these high-level monsters, they must first deal with the hundreds of undead of various kinds that surround them.

"Be careful to control your strength and energy," the captain said, chopping off a bone claw that emerged from the soil with his hand axe. "This is their home turf." The adventurers rhythmically changed formations, using the surrounding broken weapons and corroded siege equipment as cover as they fought against the undead creatures.

"But they keep coming!" The black knight didn't make a move, not because he was arrogant, but because he was using these low-level undead to wear down his prey's stamina. These adventurers were all superhumans, not suitable to be killed and buried in the ground to become zombie warriors or skeleton warriors. Their superhuman level was not low, and they were suitable to be pulled in and made into new black knights or corpse demons or other high-level things.

As more and more undead awaken and crawl out of the earth, the adventurers' range of movement is greatly compressed, forcing them to stand back to back, protecting vulnerable classes like mages and bards in the middle.