Wasteland Lord: Starting from Thirty Days to Live

[River Goddess Statue: A monster created by Thelma followers through a sacrificial ritual; a near-level 3 monster.]

For some reason, it usually maintains the appearance of a statue, and when it is a statue, it enters a state that cannot be destroyed by physical damage.

Perhaps the secret to its true destruction lies hidden in its modus operandi.

Physical attacks are ineffective?

Vitorio was utterly stunned. How could this monster possess such incredible power?

He tried to cut it with his sword, but apart from the sparks generated when the sword blade touched the statue, not a single scratch was left on the surface of the statue.

Vitorio had no choice but to pass this information on to others.

Panic immediately gripped the crowd.

"It can't be attacked, and it's still a near-level three monster. Perhaps we should retreat for now." Isolde's face darkened.

Before figuring out what kind of monster this was, Vittorio certainly wouldn't send his soldiers to their deaths in vain.

So he ordered everyone to step back and retreat to the main gate.

However, the retreat was not smooth due to the darkness of the church.

It took them several minutes to cover a distance of just over ten meters, during which time they could hear screams from other soldiers on the periphery.

When someone finally reached the gate, Vittorio counted the number of people again.

Five people are missing.

Vittorio was angry but helpless.

It was so dark that no one knew who was launching the attack or where it was coming from.

However, even worse news was yet to come.

"The door won't open; it looks like something's blocking it from the outside!"

The soldiers near the gate frantically pounded on it while quickly and desperately relaying the message to the others.

During this time, two more screams were heard, coming from other soldiers on the perimeter.

Vittorio knew this couldn't go on, so he ordered everyone to change how they held the torches.

"Now, pass all the torches to those on the outer edges. Everyone on the outer edge should hold at least one torch!"

"You people with torches, you don't need to do anything but one thing: keep your eyes wide open! Make sure you see clearly what's attacking from the outside!"

"And those of you standing a little further inside, you are armed and responsible for protecting those on the outer perimeter who are carrying torches. If anything tries to attack them, you draw your spears!"

With Vittorio's command, all the torches were handed to those on the outer perimeter, creating a brightly lit circle that ensured that anything attempting an attack from the darkness would be visible.

And Vittorio's method worked.

Something in the darkness suddenly launched an attack, but this time he failed and was instead repelled by those who were waiting for an opportunity to attack from the inside.

This time, however, they saw clearly what it was.

"It's...it's a corpse!"

"To be precise, it was those of our comrades who were just dragged into the darkness!"

"They were all ashen-faced and had狰狞 (zhengning, meaning ferocious or hideous) expressions; they must have been transformed into monsters!"

"And their skin is very hard, it feels like...stone!"

Someone recounted everything they had seen exactly as it happened.

Vittorio's heart stirred upon hearing his description.

The power of the evil god Therma, worshipped by the School of Abundance, lies in proliferation and reproduction.

Were these freshly killed soldiers the ones who were reproduced and transformed into the monsters attached to that statue?

Then another attack was launched from the left, which was also blocked. This time, someone provided even more crucial information.

"It really is a monster transformed from a soldier who just died!"

"But this is very unusual! These monsters freeze as soon as I look them directly in the eye! It's as if they didn't move until I spotted them!"

Vittorio turned his head and found that there was indeed a soldier statue on the left.

Someone tried to hack at the statue with a weapon, but it still didn't leave any marks.

[River Mother's Followers: Soldiers transformed through a special ritual, they have been transformed from humans into monsters, level one demons.]

[Like the River Goddess Statue, it possesses the ability to be immune to any physical attacks when stationary as a statue.]

Is it immune to physical attacks as well?

As more and more monsters emerged from the darkness, forming an encirclement around everyone, the statues surrounding them, though motionless, created immense pressure.

"Could it be because of the firelight? Are they afraid that they won't move when it's in the light?"

This hypothesis has been proposed.

Others echoed this sentiment, agreeing that it was absolutely right.

However, Vittoriorio did not agree.

He always felt there were other reasons.

"If it's light, that's bad. The torch is flickering; it probably won't burn for long."

Vittorio looked outwards and saw that the torches held by several soldiers were indeed about to fall.

The next second, two torches went out, and before they knew it, two monsters pounced on them from the darkness and dragged them into the darkness.

Three more people were lost.

A sense of panic spread among the crowd.

The gate cannot be opened, and the torches will all go out sooner or later, at which point they will all become the monster's meal.

"Don't worry, gather them all into my holy light," Eileen said.

However, the range of Eileen's Holy Light is ultimately limited, and there are always those who cannot be protected by it.

Furthermore, Eileen cannot maintain the Holy Light indefinitely, as this greatly depletes her physical strength.

Eileen's face gradually turned pale, and the others noticed it as well.

It's fair to say we've reached a dead end. Unless we find the monsters' true weakness, they'll all die, sooner or later.

Panic, collapse, and all sorts of emotions spread through the crowd.

Edmund used the flames on his greatsword to slash fiercely at the nearest statue, this time leaving some charred remains.

It seems the fire works on them, but not very well.

"Damn it!"

The more panicked others became, the calmer Vittorio needed to be.

He forced himself to think about the information he had just received from the system and other people.

In order to achieve absolute peace, he even put on the sanity ring he had just acquired.

As the Ring of Reason was put on his hand, he felt as if his simulated self overlapped with his real self sitting at the desk outside.

His mind returned to reason, and he was able to think again.

The key point has already been given in the system's introduction: the key lies in the statue's behavior pattern.

The statue sometimes moves, and sometimes it cannot move. Obviously, when it cannot move, it is when it is immune to attacks.

The key question is, what are the conditions for it to move?

Some say the conditions are dark, and there may be some truth to that.

However, at the very beginning, two soldiers were attacked, and at that time the church was brightly lit and not plunged into darkness.

But whether that's the reason or not, we'll have to try to find out.

"Now, listen to my command: raise your torches and face north!"

Everyone was very surprised and puzzled by Vittorio's command, but they did as he said out of respect for their lord.

As everyone turned north, they heard a sharp shriek coming from behind them!

The monster is moving again!

But Vittorio, with his back to the monster to the south, smiled.

He already knows what happened.