Dark Wizard: Rise! My undead army!

Moving shadows began to appear in the fog ahead, their outlines blurred and their speed slow, like walking in water.

As Karl raised his sword, he announced, "Six skeleton soldiers are approaching."

The group was no stranger to the undead; the Origin Realm also had undead, and they could eliminate them by destroying the undead fire.

Bronzebeard also saw those shadows and adjusted his direction with his shield in his left hand.

Mia, with the best eyesight, first observed the direction the skeleton soldiers were heading and found that they were not scattering but were walking towards them in a straight line.

Is it a coincidence?

The skeleton soldiers, wielding bone swords and clubs, slowly approached. Karl waited until they were within melee range before making his move.

Sidestep the first skeleton's bone claws, and at the same time, slice upwards from below with your sword, severing its spine.

The skeleton soldier's upper body leaned to one side, while its lower body remained standing. It swayed for a moment before collapsing, its skull rolling half a circle on the ground before stopping at Bronzebeard's feet, where it was then smashed to pieces by Bronzebeard's hammer.

Bronzebeard used his shield to ram the second skeleton soldier's frontal attack, while simultaneously smashing its skull with the end of his hammer handle, causing the soul fire to gradually dissipate.

It fell backward, struggled on the ground for a couple of moments, and then stopped moving.

Mia's arrows were fired simultaneously. The arrow pierced the third one's collarbone but did not damage its core. It staggered but continued to move forward.

She fired a second arrow, aiming for its eye socket.

After the arrow pierced through, the skeleton soldier stopped moving, its limbs drooped down one after another, and finally its entire skeleton broke apart, falling to the ground with a series of soft clattering sounds.

The remaining skeletons were dealt with one by one by Karl and Bronzebeard.

Karl sheathed his sword, bent down and picked up the leg bone of one of the skeleton soldiers. He weighed it in his hand, then looked at the other bones and couldn't help but purse his lips.

"These skeleton soldiers are really poor. They have nothing. They have no weapons, no armor, no magic stones, and even their bones are just ordinary bones."

Copperbeard squatted down and tapped another leg bone on the ground with the head of his hammer. The bone cracked, and the cross-section was grayish-white with no special luster.

"If you were to make soup with these bones," Copperbeard said, "it would probably take a very long time to bring out the flavor."

Karl's eyes lit up, his gaze lingered on the scattered bones for a moment, then he looked up in Mia's direction.

"The hotel owner's soup pot is so big, and he has to add ingredients to it every day. If we take these bones back with us, we might be able to negotiate a long-term supply price."

Mia, who was putting the bowstring back into the groove of the bow arm, paused after hearing this and looked at Karl with considerable surprise.

"Are you serious? We eat at the hotel every day."

Carl put the leg bone away, clipping it to the side of his backpack, and said, "Let's keep it and see what happens; maybe someone will buy it?"

Mia neither stopped them nor tried to persuade them further.

After clearing the battlefield, they continued forward.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, the fog ahead darkened, and the scorched earth on the ground gradually turned into a grayish-brown hard soil.

Several figures slowly moving appeared on the open ground ahead.

Unlike the skeletons, they do not have a complete skeletal structure. Their bodies still have some dried flesh and skin tissue remaining on their surfaces. They move slower than the previous skeletons, but they do not stop.

Carl counted them; there were five zombies.

They were slightly sturdier and stronger than the skeletons, and it only took them half an hour longer to deal with them.

This time, at least we gained something.

Mia crouched down near where the walker had fallen, her gaze falling on the few plants growing close to the ground.

This is a herb.

The leaves are thick with serrated edges, dark green in color, and free of insect damage.

"What a pity, both plants were trampled and all their medicinal properties were lost."

She picked the herb with intact leaf edges, then used her hands to loosen the soil and check the condition of the roots. Only after confirming that the root system was intact did she put it into the cloth bag she carried with her.

Karl stood leaning against the scabbard, waiting for her to finish harvesting, while Copperbeard squatted down beside her, knocking the slag off the hammerhead.

As Mia stood up, she complained again, "These zombies are restless even in death; all they do is destroy nature."

Carl didn't reply, his eyes scanning his surroundings, hoping for more insights.

Copperbeard had cleaned the hammerhead thoroughly, leaving no residue. He stood up and dusted off his knees.

They continued forward, and the closer they got to the core area, the more herbs they encountered, and occasionally they even found some "spiritual fruits" containing energy.

The three were overjoyed. So many rare and precious materials could be found every few steps. This was clearly a treasure land, not a place of demons!

On the edge of a low-lying area, they encountered their first problem: a ghost that could be considered the nemesis of the "cleaver squad".

It hung not far from the ground, its hands covering its face, as if it were crying.

Its body edges are indistinct, and its outline occasionally disperses and reassembles in the grayish-white mist, with no obvious facial features.

Karl stopped a few steps away, gripping the hilt of his sword but not drawing it. After observing it carefully for a moment, he said, "We can't handle that thing."

Mia stopped, pointing the arrow at the ghost, but didn't release it, knowing it wouldn't hit.

Bronzebeard stepped back, placing his shield in front of the three, and said, "Let's go around it, get a little further away, and not disturb it."

The three walked a long way around the low-lying area before continuing on their way.

After that, we encountered some wandering low-level undead, not many in number, and they were easy to clear out.

About an hour later, an open area appeared before them, with more densely packed gravel on the ground than before.

Carl sensed something different here.

Sure enough, there was a "treasure chest" on a flat rock at the end of the open space!

The treasure chest did not seem to have been exposed for too long; there were no obvious signs of rust on its surface, nor was there any dust on it.

Carl got excited and strode forward, ready for the exciting moment of unpacking.

Copperbeard stepped forward, grabbed his arm, and gestured with his chin toward the spot next to the iron box.

There was a shallow pit covered with dried vines, the color of which was similar to the surrounding gravel ground, making it difficult to distinguish without careful observation.

Something was moving slowly beneath the vines. It was long and narrow, its back arching and swaying slightly with the rise and fall of its abdomen, and its surface was covered with grayish-white bony scales.

Karl stopped in his tracks and involuntarily took a half step back, secretly relieved.

Damn! I almost got tricked by that old man!

Bronzebeard loosened his arms, raised his shield to cover the two of them, and then said in a low voice.

"That snake was alive. It was lying there the whole time. It must be the monster guarding the box."

Karl suddenly realized that this was familiar; it was the mimic the bard had been talking about!