The story of the black silk female knight

“I originally came here to ask Fran to do a mission, so let’s talk as we walk.”

"Ah."

Valensa and Fran quickly straightened their slightly disheveled clothes and followed Rika out of Fran's room.

On the way, Lika gave a brief overview of the mission:

"Remember the necromancer who caused the tragedy in Berdock Town? We found his trail again a few days ago... Although we couldn't catch him, we did find one of his testing grounds."

He ran away as soon as he saw me. I chased after him so fast that I only left a holy light mark on the testing ground. I didn't have time to investigate or destroy it.

That guy ran very fast, and he completely abandoned the testing ground, but there were still a lot of undead and the synthetic monsters he created in the testing ground, which had to be cleared out.

Our main task this time is this... and while we're at it, let's see if there are any valuable clues left behind in the testing grounds.

"Clean up the necromancer's testing ground..."

Valensa nodded to indicate that she understood, and then asked:

"How strong are the undead inside? Did that necromancer sneak back in?"

"That's why I'm going with you."

Lika smiled:

"I'll lie in ambush nearby. If he dares to show up, I'll give him a good beating! As for the undead in the test field... it seems that two or three of them are Lighthouse-level and could be a threat to you. The rest should be easy to deal with."

Besides you and Fran, I've also arranged for two paladin teams to go with you. This is just a simple cleanup mission; there's nothing to be afraid of, don't worry.”

"oh, I understand now."

As they spoke, the three of them finally arrived at their destination.

The Sacred Path—a large teleportation portal built by the Church of the Sun using divine magic, allowing for safe and rapid travel between cathedrals in various cities.

When Melina came to the capital from Klar City alone, she followed the holy path and even spent seven days as a nun in the church for this purpose.

Ordinary believers need to pay a price to use the Holy Path, but paladins performing missions do not.

Following the sacred path, Valensa and her companions arrived in the blink of an eye at a medium-sized city a thousand kilometers away, northeast of the royal capital, where they met up with two groups of paladins who were already waiting there.

Just like the paladin group we encountered in Bodek Town, these two paladin groups each consisted of three people, with the group leader possessing lighthouse-level strength, and the rest of the members were also quite powerful.

On the surface, Valensa seems to be the one who holds everyone back the most.

But Rika deliberately delegated command to Valensa:

"I won't be going into the testing ground with you. I'll stay outside to prevent that bastard from coming back and attacking you. So once we're inside, you'll all have to obey her orders."

"?"

The leaders of both paladin groups looked puzzled, but did not object.

"Yes, Lady Rika!"

"very good."

Rika offered no further explanation, and simply waved her hand again:

"Set off."

Once outside the cathedral and onto the street, Valensa finally felt the true essence of winter.

The city, located in northeastern France, was cold and had just snowed, with everything covered in white.

At this moment, Valensa's short skirt and black stockings and Fran's gothic dress became very eye-catching, and many passersby covered their mouths and chuckled as they looked at them.

"Wearing a skirt in this cold weather, young girls these days really love to look good."

"No, I think they must have just come from the capital. The climate there is warm all year round, and you can wear short skirts all year round... I went there once the winter before last, and the streets were full of beautiful noble ladies wearing short skirts and stockings. I didn't know where to look."

"Wow? Really? That's amazing! I'll go next time too..."

Ignoring the curious gazes and chatter of the surrounding crowd, Valensa and her companions quickly walked out of the city, and then sped off at breakneck speed.

I ran for about 40 minutes straight before finally stopping.

"...This is it? Rika-nee?"

Pointing to a place that looked like an abandoned mine, Valensa asked.

"Yes, this is it."

Lika nodded:

"This place was originally a small magic crystal mine, but it was abandoned after being mined out more than ten years ago. I don't know when it was occupied by that necromancer and became his testing ground."

It's not very big inside, but there are quite a lot of undead creatures. Be careful later... If you encounter any danger you can't get through, try to retreat first. This place isn't going anywhere.

"oh, I understand now."

Valensa nodded and beckoned Fran and the two paladin squads to enter the abandoned mine.

Most mine passageways are not very wide, and this abandoned mine is no exception. It's a bit cramped for two people to walk side by side, and three people would have to squeeze together.

Valensa's command skills are actually average, but she does know some simple instructions.

She positioned herself and Fran in the middle of the group, while the two paladin squads formed a line one in front of the other, slowly advancing deeper into the abandoned mine.

About thirty meters into the abandoned mine, the first wave of undead appeared.

In front of them were dozens of skeleton soldiers, and behind them were several zombie wolves that had somehow appeared from somewhere, flanking them from both sides.

The situation looked quite dangerous, but paladins are not afraid of undead.

"Fight! Maintain formation! Annihilate the enemy!"

Valensa was issuing orders like a figurehead commander, but in reality, the two groups of paladins had already started moving without her saying a word.

The paladins quickly unleashed a barrage of holy light bullets and holy light slashes, wiping out almost all the skeleton soldiers and killing most of the zombie wolves in the blink of an eye.

But this was just the beginning. Soon, more undead poured out from the depths of the abandoned mine, mostly skeletons and various zombie animals, falling one after another to the divine magic attack.

Both paladin teams performed admirably, each consisting of a melee vanguard, a ranged damage dealer, and a buff and healer, effectively blocking the undead attacking from both directions with impenetrable defense.

Valensa and Fran didn't even have a chance to make a move... their dresses and stockings remained neat and clean, just like two young ladies on a picnic.

Wow!

Just then, a hand suddenly emerged from the ground and precisely grabbed Valensa's black-stockinged leg.

At the same time, the ground also became as soft as a swamp.

Chapter 191 Where did all these dead people come from?

Valensa's black-stockinged leg was pulled down halfway in the blink of an eye, and it continued to sink.

"Watch out, it's a high-ranking undead! Protect the commander!"

The two paladin squads that were maintaining the front line immediately wanted to return to reinforce.

"No need, you can continue. She's just a pervert who likes black stockings."

Valensa calmly stopped the two paladin squads, and with a light laugh, she thrust her alloy longsword, which she had secretly gathered a great deal of holy light power into, downwards with a fierce thrust:

"I knew all along that your frontal attack was just a feint... You wanted to sneak up and take out the commander, right? Your thinking is quite clear, but I'm not the kind of commander who only knows how to give orders!"

Holy Light. Spiked Sword!

The entire blade of the alloy longsword pierced the ground instantly, followed by the explosive power of the second stage of the spiked sword technique and holy light erupting together underground.

Immediately, the hand gripping Valensa's black-stockinged legs completely lost its strength, and the ground, which had been as soft as a swamp, hardened again.

The high-level undead that launched the sneak attack from underground is most likely dead.

"Don't let your guard down, keep pushing forward."

Valensa pulled her now-dirty black stockings from the ground and gently dusted them off.

"The undead that just ambushed me was only around the Pearl level, and Sister Rika said there were two or three Lighthouses here... So don't mess up the formation, otherwise the weaker ones will be in danger if they get separated."

"Yes, sir!"

Valensa's ability to instantly kill a high-level undead of the Pearl rank clearly earned her much more respect from the paladins.

The group continued forward and soon passed through the narrow mine tunnels, arriving at a new, more spacious area littered with skeletons.

This must be the necromancer's real testing ground.

This place has clearly been the site of many cruel experiments, and it is filled with a great deal of resentment. Even if ordinary people are not attacked by the undead, they will most likely fall seriously ill or even die on the spot.

“…It’s a bit strange.”

Fran, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. Her eyes turned blood red, yet there was a golden ring around the edge of her blood-red eyes.

She must have used her vampire talent and some kind of observational divine magic at the same time.

"What's wrong?" Valensa asked hastily.

"here……"

Fran pointed around:

"Many people have died... a great many, more than a dozen villages combined, probably nearly half the population of a medium-sized city."

But this doesn't make sense... If so many people were really dead or missing in the vicinity, we should have received the relevant reports by now... Why did we only discover this place now?

Also, do you remember Valencia, the city we passed through before coming here? The residents there seemed genuinely relaxed and happy when they talked and laughed, which shows that they had not been threatened by death or fear, nor had they suffered the pain of losing loved ones.

So here's the question... where did all these dead people come from?

"This……"

Valensa was truly stumped by Fran's question.

Instead of answering immediately, she took out the reward she received from the gray rat incident—a small golden rod that had the same function as the Lian Nian Crystal Instrument—and pressed it against her brow.

This made the other two paladin groups even more curious.

Within the church, paladins who are equipped with such items are at least at the vice-captain level... Just who is this seemingly decorative knight of honor?

Many quick-witted paladins started racking their brains, drawing connections from Valensa's surname and guessing a few things.

Valensa, after her consciousness connected to the church's database, quickly sifted through the large-scale deaths that had occurred in Fran in recent years, but none of them matched up.

In fact, the number of recorded victims of all natural disasters and accidents in Fran over the past five years doesn't even equal the number of human remains here.

"Could these be people who died a long time ago?"

Valensa could only guess at this:

"That necromancer might not be able to beat Sister Rika, but he's definitely a Radiant-ranked mage, and maybe even an old guy who's lived for many years... Are these corpses materials he's collected?"

"will not!"

Fran shook her head firmly, then pointed to her eyes:

“I can tell their approximate time of death. The longest these skeletons have been dead is no more than three years. And if they were really ancient corpses, there wouldn’t be such a strong resentment left… because most of the dead were ordinary people who had never cultivated, and their souls and resentment wouldn’t last long.”

"This……"

That's really strange.

Within the territory of Franco, a number of people, equivalent to nearly half the city's population, suddenly appeared dead, and there were almost no related death records.

If the relevant information cannot be found in the official population statistics of France, it is very likely that the relevant nobles or officials have been controlled. But it is strange that it cannot be found in the database of the Church of the Sun.

If we eliminate all possibilities of error, the remaining possibility, however outrageous, should be the truth.

These bodies were most likely from outsiders, so they were not counted by the Fran authorities, and no one knew they died deep in this abandoned mine.

Then a new question arises... Where did these outsiders come from?

The Four Islands Alliance? Or America?

One of these countries faces France across the sea, and the other is located in the north of the desolate land. Even with the power of the two countries, it would be difficult to organize a large number of ordinary people to cross the border. How did that necromancer manage to do it?

I can't figure it out...

Let's put this aside for now, write down the information, and take it back for someone smarter to think about.

Valensa shook her head, clearing her mind of the jumbled thoughts, and took a deep breath:

"Never mind that for now, let's prepare to continue the fight... I can sense that the three strongest Lighthouse-class undead creatures here are coming!"

"Yes, sir!"