Witch Troupe and the Undead

“There must be a secret passage or room here. They couldn’t have moved the things out through the main gate, and it wouldn’t be too far from the ritual site.” It’s not like they haven’t dealt with cultists before. In fact, when they were expanding their territory, Iron Shield Fortress was occupied by a group of cultists. Only after they were wiped out did it become the capital of the territory.

"I'm not good at finding secret passages." "Aren't you a thief? Why can't you find secret passages?!"

"Who told you thieves only look for secret passages?" the knight, a former thief, retorted loudly. "The job requires speed; only newbies get blinded by valuables and search the house endlessly. They'll just get caught by the owner or bodyguards."

"True experts scout out the target's location and value in advance, then enter at the safest possible time, search suspicious locations immediately, find high-value targets, restore everything to its original state, and then make their escape."

"Shut up. This isn't the time for you to exchange experiences, Miss Natalia. What do you think?"

"Huh!?" Natalia, who had been listening to the gossip, suddenly snapped out of her daze. "Me? What am I looking at?"

"I mean, do you have any spells that can help find the secret passage?"

“Well… I can use magic to find the secret passage, but…” Natalia said softly. She could use echo spells to solve this problem, but it was hard to say whether the spell would actually be an echo.

She pulled a pair of bat wings from her kit, and the knights stood behind her. In this world, there was a rule similar to that of the age of firearms—spells had first pass.

Natalia began to chant a spell in a low voice, communicating with the "spirit" within the bat wings—what was called the "source of magic," or, to put it more metaphysically, the object's own "spirit"—hoping it would manifest some kind of supernatural power, before throwing the material out.

A surge of magic emanated from her withered wings. Just when Natalia thought she had successfully cast a spell—a rare occurrence—the gathered air didn't release a wide-ranging sound wave as expected; instead…

"Roar!" A bull formed from atmospheric energy charged towards the wall directly in front of it. "Boom!" The earth shook, dust billowed, and the stone wall completely collapsed, revealing a large hole and a secret passage behind it.

“Well… how should I put it?” Natalia turned to look at the knights, their faces covered in dust and staring in disbelief, and rubbed her feet on the ground. “Anyway, it seems the secret passage has been found.”

Although the process and method were a bit distorted, her sorcery still achieved its ultimate goal. Ah, never mind whether it's an echo spell or not, just tell me if the secret passage was found! (Annoyed) Putting aside the facts, didn't she actually find the secret passage?

They even killed a gargoyle guarding the secret passage. The baby-sized gargoyle was completely shattered, and traces of several blank gems were visible in its remains.

“The secret passage has been under construction for at least several years. It seems we haven’t been as vigilant as before. Let’s hope we don’t end up getting our heads chopped off in our dreams by some petty thief.” Kanger glanced at the situation in the secret passage and called for the others to follow.

"Boom!" Dust fell from the ceiling, and the candlestick on the table shook. "What's that noise?" The apprentice guarding the secret room looked up.

"What else could it be? That idiot in the master's family is practicing magic again. Her teacher is something else. He doesn't even explain the difference between black and white magic to her. He mixes all sorts of things together, and the effect is... tsk tsk." A hellish sorcerer apprentice shook his head and clicked his tongue in amazement.

To them, witchcraft is a ritualistic spell that uses the magic inherent in things to cast spells. In arcane magic, releasing fireballs comes from a fire ritual constructed from materials such as sulfur, drawing fire element magic from environmental elements to construct spells.

In witchcraft, the material used is coal, and the fire magic contained in the coal itself is utilized. This leads to the biggest flaw of witchcraft: there is an upper limit, and it is an objectively visible upper limit. The fireball released by witchcraft will not exceed the maximum energy that the coal used can provide.

As for the fireballs that arcane spells can unleash... there is no upper limit. It depends on how much fire magic you gather. Sulfur and lizard dung are just requirements for ritual construction—there is no difference between using one portion and using ten portions; they will not turn into ten fireballs, and the ritual may even become unbalanced.

However, wizards can indeed give you 10 consecutive fireballs from 10 kilograms of coal. But the magic within things is not singular; it contains a variety of tendencies. The total energy of a thing is limited, but the composition of energy is countless. So, how to combine them, avoid mutual conflict and interference, and rationally mix similar things together is the core of witchcraft.

To put it simply, it involves using incantations—a language that communicates with all things—to communicate with these materials, understand their properties, and activate the properties one needs, thus dividing them into two major categories: black magic and white magic.

White magic focuses on healing, buffs, and support, while black magic focuses on damage, curses, and debuffs. These two main categories can be further subdivided and cross over to create other things, such as green magic, which is based on white magic but includes curse magic.

As for that idiot from the lord's family, in the eyes of these hellish sorcerers, she was someone who had learned witchcraft, but that was all she had learned. She herself couldn't understand how the commands from the source of witchcraft were actually working.

The same material makes a difference between white magic and black magic. Similarly, the same command to release energy can release different types of energy. She only knows these basic magic tricks, trying to do everything at once. As for the spells she throws out... well, that depends on how she interprets the materials she uses.

Or, to put it another way, the way this chaotic and inexplicable model randomly collapses into at the moment it is observed can be described as the tendency of its chaotic magic.

She reminded me of someone.

"What a coincidence, I just thought of someone too."

"So we're thinking of the same person?"

“I bet it!” The two apprentices exchanged a smile. “Explosion Master? I think that Explosion Master has definitely never seen this idiot before, otherwise he wouldn’t dare to shamelessly claim that title. Natalia, that stupid girl, should be called the Explosion Master!”

"Young Miss, what are black magic and white magic?"

"I don't know, my teacher never told me!" The girl looked blankly at the knights.

"who!"

"Bang!" The door to the secret chamber was kicked open, and a half-dead crucian carp was thrown in. It landed on the ground and hopped around a couple of times. Its eyes shone with an eerie light—no, not a metaphor, but a real, eerie light. When this light touched the two apprentices who had just picked up the bells to summon familiars, their bodies turned to stone at an alarming speed.

"Well done!" Conger was overjoyed. The petrification spell was cast perfectly. However, Natalia looked embarrassed. The crucian carp should have triggered the water element's ice ring spell!

Chapter 157 Five Coins Team, reporting for duty!

Tallinn, the castle.

Several armored soldiers were busy taking down portraits of the former lord from inside the castle and throwing them into the fire in the courtyard, where they were slowly burned to ashes amidst the billowing smoke and crackling flames.

Count Talos stood by the window, looked down at the busy soldiers, shook his head, and returned to his seat in the study. This luxurious study, which originally belonged to his brother, was now his. After briefly admiring the exquisite and elegant furnishings, he refocused his attention on a few documents.

One document is an application to change the title of the Clayber family, which is being drafted, and the other is an application to inherit his brother's territory. Both documents must be sent to the capital as soon as possible, where a special envoy team consisting of three nobles of equal rank and one noble of higher rank will be dispatched.

On one hand, there is the completion of the new investiture ceremony, and on the other hand, there is the investigation into the reason for the change of title. However, Count Talos believes that this is just a formality. If there is some other reason, this hurdle will not be easy to overcome, and some tricks and bribes will be necessary.

However, if it's a warlock from hell causing trouble and summoning demons to massacre the city, then there's not much to say. As someone who actually fought to the last man in the city, the nobles from the capital won't make things too difficult for them, provided that they are given enough face, such as a reception befitting their status, or some unspoken but mutually understood gifts, etc.

After writing the two documents and stamping his family's mark on the red clay seal with a seal ring, he summoned his hawk servant to send the documents out via swift hawks.

However, the remaining issues are not so easy to handle. Tallinn's population has plummeted by about 80%, but about 20% of the population has survived for various reasons. Therefore, the immediate priority is to restore the city's population and to calculate the detailed losses.

Those people from the slums and the noble districts can be disregarded; the former are nothing but scum, and the latter save me the trouble of dealing with the courtiers of the Clayber family. As for the remaining few, most of them can recognize the facts and the situation.

However, the losses to the commercial district, the residential area, and the workshops cannot be ignored. Fortunately, the mines and quarries, the economic pillars of Tallinn, are actually located some distance from the city center, even though they are said to be inside the city. In addition, mines are, in a sense, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Therefore, many of the miners and craftsmen survived, and only a small team needed to be sent to take them over.

The rest was not so easy to deal with. The loss of the urban class meant that Earl Talos had lost a large number of literate people with some skills and crafts, and it would be difficult to gather enough officials for the various affairs of the territory, or even castle deacons.

This can only be filled by residents from other villages and towns migrating there. There's no need to rush it, and there's no use in rushing it. All we need to do is have the light cavalry deliver the lord's recruitment notices to the various villages and towns in the territory.

However, regarding the affairs of the merchant guilds, he, as the acting lord, had to write to the headquarters of each guild to inform them of the course of events and the situation, and then send new caravans and managers. Meanwhile, the local merchants needed to take stock of their assets and the survivors, identify a few lucky survivors, and form a new guild of their own to manage local commercial affairs.

Of course, the next step is to meet with the elders and mayors of various villages and towns, adjust taxes and make a series of personnel requests. After that, it is necessary to receive the knights of the Kreber family who live in various defense zones, accept their pledge of allegiance, and deal with their possible questions and challenges. If this hurdle cannot be overcome, the territory may be split into several pieces.

In between these tasks, there were also some miscellaneous matters to attend to, such as issuing new tax-collecting licenses and new purchasing permits, as well as organizing the cleanup of the remaining corpses and traces in the city, repairing houses and castles, and inventorying empty houses and unclaimed wealth.

For Talos, this rapidly depleted his energy. It wasn't until evening, when an eagle slave brought in a letter from Iron Shield Fortress, that the giant-like, burly man took off his ridiculous little glasses and rubbed his wrist, which was sore and numb from holding the pen.

“Natalia’s letter…hmm.” Talos opened the letter and glanced at it. They had found traces in the dungeon, and under Natalia’s “superior petrification spell” attack, all the cultists had been captured. Those cultists hiding in the town had also heard the news and fled.

This didn't satisfy Talos, because there were still some survivors. However, this flaw could be made up for later. He immediately wrote a new letter to Natalia, asking her to publicly execute the captured cultists without interrogation.

Just as he finished writing the last word and was about to close the envelope, the study door was suddenly pushed open with a bang. "Sir, something happened?"

"What is it?" Talos looked up at the knight who had entered. "Are there still cultists active in the city, or have they found some blasphemous altar?"

“No, it’s…” The knight leaned forward and whispered something, and the count’s eyes widened immediately, as if he had heard an unbelievable story.

"You mean, my best warrior was... was..."

"I got hit by money," the knight repeated.

"What does 'being hit by money' mean?!" Talos found Luster language so difficult to understand for the first time. Were they speaking the same language?

"Was it knocked down by a falling money bag?" That's possible. After all, it's one thing for merchants, but courtiers and nobles would hide some of their coins to prevent theft. If they hid them in the ceiling, then Talos could imagine being knocked down by a money bag.

Once the quantity of precious metal coins increases, their weight becomes considerable, comparable to the power of a rockfall trap.

"Or is someone throwing coins at my warriors to humiliate them?" That's one possibility, but it's even more unbelievable than the previous one.

"No, no, no, sir, they were defeated by... by money."

“Take me to see!” Talos stood up, picked up the battle axe beside him. He really wanted to know what it meant to be defeated by money. He felt that after being a pioneer knight for so many years, he should have seen all sorts of strange and wonderful things.

Tallinn, Cross Street. An ordinary, unassuming two-story house, constructed of earth, wood, and brick, quite old, with plastered walls and sturdy black pine doors and windows—the standard residence of a respectable gentleman. There are even a few pots of withered dried flowers on the windowsill.

"Who goes there? State your name!" A bronze coin, some years old, stood on the threshold, its ancient portrait on the front loudly demanding in a rather dignified tone, using an uncommon ancient forest language.

Talos looked at the coin, then at the two warriors lying on the ground, their heads smashed open and bleeding profusely. He opened his mouth, realizing he might indeed be a bit ignorant.

The ancient warrior on the coin paused, gripping his weapon. "If you are not from this capital, leave immediately and do not linger here!" The refined way he spoke made it take Talos a while to understand his meaning. Then, looking at the two-story house behind him, he wondered if the capital it was referring to was this one.

"What the hell are you?"

"I am the guardian of the gates and bridges, the steadfast Colin of Bronze. Who are you? Could it be... the one our destiny has been waiting for!?"

"So, you were stopped by this thing!?" Talos glanced speechlessly at his subordinates. His words enraged the copper coin in front of him. "How dare you be so rude! You must be the leader of these bandits outside the city! Take this kick!" The figure on the copper coin made a flying kick motion, and the coin turned into a beam of light and smashed towards Talos.

"Clang!" The copper coin and the battle axe collided, sparking as they bounced off and landed. "Impressive skills. You are indeed no ordinary person. But even if you defeat us, there are still warriors stronger than me ahead of you. I am merely the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings!"

“…” Talos remained silent. He felt that if he were to complain about this matter, he would have already lost, even though the fact that he could fight back and forth with a copper coin was already absurd enough.

"Come forth, the warrior spirit of us is burning fiercely!" *Thud!* Talos swung his battle axe, sending the bronze coin flying like a baseball. "Ah! You despicable scoundrel, attacking while we are speaking!"

"..." Talos looked at his subordinate, "Is this the house of some construct mage (a branch of alchemy)?" To be able to create such a puppet from coins, to be honest, the skill level is quite amazing. If he were still alive, he should indeed pay a very polite visit. Even if he couldn't invite the other party to serve him, at least he could become acquainted with them. Perhaps he would need to ask for their help in the future.

"No, I asked the survivors from the city hall, and this should be just an ordinary apartment building. The first floor is rented to a scribe's family. The owner has a farm outside the city and rarely lives in the city. The second floor is rented to two small business owners who do business in the city."

If it's housing in the slums, it's indeed difficult to find out who owns it right now. But if it's housing near the central crossroads, most of the survivors in Tallinn have some idea, since there are so many people coming and going that it's hard not to notice.

“Let’s go in and see what’s going on.” Talos had just pushed open the door when he stopped in his tracks. The environment on the first floor was ordinary. The room was made up of two squares, one large and one small. The smaller square was the bedroom, and the bedroom door faced the larger square. The bedroom and the entrance formed an L-shaped corner.

The larger section houses all the facilities, including the kitchen, living room, dining room, and activity room. The kitchen is near the back window, the reception area is near the front window, the dining room is sandwiched in the middle, and a small door leading to the alleyway is against the wall.

No washroom or toilet was found; it was presumably a public toilet in the back alley. The bathroom was a small space separated by wooden boards on the edge of the kitchen, containing a bathtub and towels.

Of course, none of that is the point. The point is that on the table, a silver coin is facing away from Talos, the scales emblem on the back reflecting the evening sunlight as if it were edged with gold.

"Hmph, it seems that the incompetent and muddle-headed bronze coin failed to stop the invaders~" The silver coin spun around, and the blurry human figure on the front emitted a powerful voice.

This is an ancient silver coin. The human figure is likely a profile of an ancient war god who no longer has any religious significance. Due to its antique value, this item is worth about 1.2 times the standard silver coin.

"Bloom, silver radiance!" The coin tilted slightly, reflecting the sunlight into Talos's eyes, then transformed into a silver arrow that shot straight toward his helmet. "Clang!" The silver coin struck the side of the upright battle axe with a crisp sound, and bounced back against the wall.

A series of silvery-white streaks flashed in the room, as if a highly skilled swordsman was attacking Talos with a swift sword and with considerable strength. Although it posed no real threat to the count, who was wearing armor, having his helmet knocked off would still be an extremely humiliating result!

Finally, after getting used to the attack of the flying silver coins, Talos seized an opening and stomped it to the ground. "Damn it... how could it..." The silver coin struggled a few times and then stopped moving.

Talos took a deep breath, lifted his foot, and was about to pick up the silver coin when he caught a glimpse of something gleaming out of the corner of his eye. "Clang!" A small silver coin struck his helmet with little force, but it was extremely insulting. "Go! Leave this to me!"

"..." Faced with a small silver coin minted by the Kingdom of Rada, which was smaller than the other silver coins, Count Talos was speechless. He just wanted to be quiet and not ask who Jingjing was.

"Even I... even someone as weak as me should have a heart of loyalty and righteousness!" If his body hadn't been unable to control himself, the face on the small silver coin would have been shedding hot tears.

"Damn it..." Talos punched the small silver coin away. He felt like a clown on a stage, even though there was no one around, he felt as if there were thousands of spectators laughing at him.

Just as I stepped onto the stairs leading to the second floor, two silver beams of light attacked from the left and right. "Even the old man couldn't stop you!" "Yes, you are indeed a powerful intruder, but this is your last stop!"

Talos expressionlessly reached out with both hands to try and catch the two flying silver coins, but he missed them. The two coins collided with each other in mid-air, changed their direction of motion, and bypassed his arms.

"There's an opening!" Two tremendous forces came from behind, but coins are coins after all, and they couldn't break through the armor's defenses at all.

"It...it's ineffective! No, that's impossible!"

"Let's unleash our secret combination technique!"

“…” Talos took a deep breath, feeling a deep sense of exhaustion from the very marrow of his bones. However, he had to admit that no matter which alchemist created these frivolous coins, he was truly skilled.

This thing... is perfect for humiliating the enemy, but if he were the one being humiliated, he wouldn't be able to laugh.

Two silver coins overlapped and hurtled towards him. "Let's see our bond! Combined attack, double attack!" Just before they hit, they split apart and headed straight for Talos's eyes. This made him take it a little more seriously. He turned his head slightly and swung his gauntlets like he was swatting mosquitoes, sending the two coins flying back to the second floor.

"Looks like it's over." He waited a while and, finding no more coins coming at him, finally breathed a sigh of relief. After stepping onto the second floor, he was greeted by a golden glow. The gold coin standing on the candlestick reflected the sunlight onto his face; it was a gold coin minted by the Empire.

The obverse features the face of Toret III, a typical emperor who fought on horseback throughout his life and achieved remarkable feats. He was the architect of the empire's current territory, and thus, his image was minted on the coin, which made Talos's expression twist.

"God...is this a test for me?!" The count gave a weak, bitter laugh.

"You actually defeated my Four Heavenly Kings, but this is where you'll end up." Talos didn't even want to complain about how there were five Heavenly Kings, including the thing at the entrance.

"Now, it will be I, Golden Torret, who will stop your despicable ambitions!"

"..." Talos had no idea what strange ambition he had to realize in this little house, but he knew that if he didn't deal with this guy, he probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

"Come on, my loyal men, this is no enemy that one can fight alone. Let us unite!" Four beams of light flew out from downstairs, and four different kinds of silver coins formed a human shape. Talos didn't know whether to complain or not, but this thing actually formed a complete warrior shape!

On its left hand is a small silver coin minted by the Kingdom of Rada, with a sword and shield emblem on the reverse, representing the shield; on its right hand is a silver coin minted by the former Duchy of Lewood (now the Eastern Province of the Empire), featuring crossed swords, representing the sword; its head is a gold coin minted by the Imperial Royal Mint, which forms its portrait; its body is an ancient silver coin with a profile of the god of war on the obverse, and its feet are silver coins from the southern archipelago, depicting two seagoing ships that look like boots.

"We are the Five Coins Team!" Five voices rang out, making Count Talos feel that he should turn around and leave right now, and not bother with these clowns. However, considering that these things could talk, he was really afraid that a strange little story of "Count Talos and the Five Coins" would spread afterward, especially the ending of fighting hard but being defeated and fleeing in shame.

After a chaotic and bloody battle that is hard to describe, Count Talos conquered the "fortified" castle guarded by the "Five Coins Squad" and planted his own flag (not really) on the enemy lines.

"So powerful, ah... our mission to protect..." The five coins fell helplessly, turning into a pile of ordinary coins. Only the copper coin that had just jumped in through the window was wailing, "Comrades, how could you leave alone!"

"Smack!" Count Talos slammed his fist down, silencing the noisy fellow as well.

"...I must be dreaming today!" He no longer wanted to comment on any of this; he just wanted to go back, have a drink, and sleep it off to forget everything.

Chapter 158 Puppet Manufacturing

The defeated coins were placed in a metal box as if facing a major enemy, and the box was even sealed with seal tape and chains. Compared to the comical situation of being "defeated by a few silly coins", this tense attitude could actually make the onlookers feel a sense of seriousness.

It's like if a few people with serious expressions fished some stones out of your bathroom and carried them out with both hands, almost everyone would find it funny. But if these same people were wearing full anti-radiation suits and stuffed those stones into a lead box marked with a yellow and black warning of "electromagnetic radiation hazards," then probably no one would be able to laugh.

[There are real cases where people stole a few cesium spheres from a nuclear base and stuffed them into their own toilets, intending to sell them as scrap metal. I can't even imagine how much the local base manager must have screamed.]

Talos and his men searched the entire house but found nothing of value or worth the attention of the few coin guards. Of course, if he had brought his family members instead of the martial arts faction, they probably would have found something.