Witch Troupe and the Undead

"They're out!" The plaza outside had clearly been cleared; the mummified corpse in the middle was gone, leaving only tattered armor and weapons on the ground. At the city gate of the royal city, a Gluttonous Sin Demon was blocking the way. It seemed that the adventurers had no intention of fighting the Sin Demon and were just rushing in.

"We can't get out this way, let's try another route." The black horse strode towards the wall on the side of the courtyard and kicked it. Anyway, this courtyard was the [Prideful Sin Domain], and other sin demons wouldn't intrude into it. It didn't matter how much noise it made, since there were already a few unlucky guys inside attracting the other side.

The wall collapsed with a loud crash, revealing a path, and the startled Gluttonous Demon crawled toward it.

"How much longer can they hold out?" Roach and the others asked as they ran.

"I don't know, but it shouldn't be a big problem. At least after we withdraw, the Arrogant Demon's abilities will drop to normal levels." The Arrogant Demon's base stats aren't low, and with all the magic power of the entire Sin Domain concentrated on it, it means that if your output isn't enough, for example, if you send in a bunch of weaklings, let alone whether those weaklings can defeat the unenhanced Demon.

Even if they could, do you know how long it would take them to exhaust the magic of "Arrogance"? Sinful demons are not living beings; they are materialized aggregates of magic. In other words, if you can't exhaust their magic, it's meaningless to inflict any more wounds on them.

"Go back and ask that lonely old woman if she has any ideas," Luo Qi decisively stated. At times like these, it's time to rely on the "wisdom of our predecessors."

The academy gates were still the same as before. However, it seemed that other adventurers had discovered this safe zone and set up camp here. As for the library, no one went there. Books were a very valuable treasure in this world, so adventurers would not damage these ancient murals, inscriptions, and books like tomb raiders.

On the contrary, they would try their best to preserve and reproduce these things. After all, a book is not cheap, even a new book is not cheap, let alone a rare book like this, which is extremely expensive. The buyers are either professors from academies, mages, nobles and other people who are not short of money.

However, on the other hand, precisely because the books are so expensive, the library must be equipped with a large number of defense mechanisms. Unauthorized entry is the same as breaking into a mage tower, so they will not enter the library rashly.

Of course, there is another reason. When they came, they obviously did not bring the tools for making rubbings or the containers for storing books, so... now they will either sigh at the treasure mountain or turn the originally priceless rare books into a pile of worthless scraps of paper.

There were no signs of adventurers in the dormitory area, but quite a few adventurers were camping in the teaching building. Some trees in the courtyard had also been cut down, and smoke could be seen rising everywhere.

"Crack!" The library door was pushed open again. "You found them?" The black-haired little girl sat upright in her seat, flipping through a picture book. She was wearing a pair of small round glasses on her nose. Unlike before, there were several corpses lying near the door, or rather, people who looked like corpses.

"No, we didn't defeat that arrogant sin demon. Does he have any weaknesses? And these are..."

"The guy who broke in earlier attacked without warning," the Goddess of the Night said, taking off her glasses. "But this decoration is quite nice; I like it." To her, it was just a personalized accessory; after all, a god isn't nearsighted or has failing eyesight.

"All dead?"

"No, I asked them to be quiet for a bit. When you leave later, just take it with you and throw it away." He spoke as if he were casually throwing away trash when he left the house.

“It’s mainly your environment and appearance…” Roach scratched his head. You can’t blame those adventurers. When you walk in, there’s a tall chair back, and then there’s obviously abnormal, supernatural black hair that looks like a bunch of giant pythons coiled on the bookshelf, with something that might be a magic book next to you.

Your appearance and the environment make you look like a big boss. Well, in a sense, that's true; you are indeed the biggest boss here.

Moreover, all the previous books were broken, leaving only this one in his hand. In the eyes of adventurers, it was just a guardian monster protecting ancient and precious books, something like a banshee or something similar—they never thought it was a god of the present world. At this point, if they didn't strike first, would they wait to hear the banshee's scream?

It's like if you see a guy on the street in America holding a rifle, would you first consider or confirm whether it's a toy gun or if he has malicious intent? Of course, you would scream and run away the moment you see him pull out a gun.

Adventurers are the same. Don't say they're not cautious enough. That's not caution. That's "she's waiting for the skill's animation to start, and you're waiting to die." Who would dare to go up and talk to such a boss-like character and let her go first? This isn't a video game where there are guides to help you out if a boss doesn't use a full-screen instant-death skill at the start.

In reality, there are no passive monsters who remain indifferent to all the clues, information, and intelligence you find around them. This is why most adventurers end up dying in one of their adventures.

“Indeed, with this decor, if you told them this was a temple, they probably wouldn’t believe you.” The goddess nodded, agreeing with Roach’s assessment. With a gentle wave of her hand, the collapsed bookshelves turned to ashes, from which candlesticks rose. Her tattered clothes were quickly covered by her black hair, transforming into a simple black dress.

The skirt was very long, completely covering her feet, and hung down under the chair, giving a somewhat empty feeling. The clothes were much more conservative than Roach had imagined, with almost only her hands and neck exposed, completely different from the succubus-like revealing outfit she had worn before.

"Should this be okay?"

"..." The candlelight was so dim it seemed nonexistent, the candlesticks were black, the furniture was equally dark and gloomy, and a girl in a long black dress and a crown exuded a mysterious aura... This was more like a BOSS room, and an upgrade from the previous one.

"Is this the style of your temple?"

“Yes, the priests designed it for a long time before creating it,” the goddess said with satisfaction. “The dim lighting, the quiet and gloomy environment, with its mysterious and tranquil atmosphere, combined with the well-blended incense, is full of inclusiveness. I personally really like this kind of environment, especially when I’m resting.”

To put it another way, it was an eerie, dim blue candlelight, an environment where darkness seemed to swallow all the light, a space so quiet it was almost like a tomb, with strands of hair wriggling in every shadow, making it hard to tell if they were hair or venomous snakes, and suspicious purple smoke rising from the corners... If this were a Soul Wanderer, Roach would have started performing a monkey show to buff himself and summon any passing big shots.

"Yes, you asked about the weakness of the [Pride] Demon. Unfortunately, such things have no weaknesses," the goddess answered Roach's question seriously. "And the sword I gave you is powerful enough to harm her."

"But that damage wasn't enough. The wounds healed instantly. All the magic power of the Sin Domain was in her body, and the magic pump couldn't extract it."

"A magic pump?" The goddess tilted her head. "Let me see it."

"Um, there are only blueprints here..."

“That works too…” A roll of blueprints flew into her hands. The goddess put her glasses back on and looked at them seriously. Luo Qi thought she should wear a yellow hat with “Safety First” written on it, just like a foreman looking at blueprints on a construction site.

“It’s a novel idea, but it’s really useless against the Demon of Pride.” She tossed the blueprints back to Roach. “I can’t offer you much substantial help in dealing with the Demon of Pride, otherwise it wouldn’t be a ‘test.’ However, I can tell you that the Demon of Pride is not the strongest of the Seven Demons of Sin, and in some ways it is even the weakest.”

"So, its strongest point is also its weakest point?"

"No, what I mean is, the fact that it has no weaknesses doesn't mean it has no strengths. It's purely a matter of power. There's no limit to how much she can copy your abilities, but using this ability requires her own magic power to be consumed."

"Then I think I understand." Roach roughly understood that the Arrogant Sin Demon could learn or copy their skills and abilities, but the consumption of these abilities was the same for both sides. It was just that the Arrogant Sin Demon had a huge amount of Sin Domain magic power to squander.

Of course, this flaw can't really be called a flaw, since both of you have the same mana cost, but the opponent's mana bar is almost as wide as the screen, while you only have a small mana bar. So even if the opponent uses this ability, it will consume a lot of power, which is not very meaningful.

"Hmm~" Livia fell into deep thought. She tilted her head and began to think seriously. After thinking for more than ten minutes, her little head was almost as bright as a light bulb. Her cheeks were rosy and her emerald eyes were shining like two gems. Obviously, she had thought of a solution.

"Goo~~~~"

"...You guys go eat first, there's no need to rush." ​​After fighting for most of the day, the huge physical exertion meant that the little food they had eaten earlier was quickly consumed.

The dormitory area. The rooms are still the same as when they left. It seems that the adventurers have agreed to camp separately and not too close together, especially unfamiliar adventurers. This is quite normal. After all, there are always some things left in the camp. If something is missing, it could easily turn into a fight between the two adventure teams. Everyone is here to make money, why bother!

Those who have made it this far are all seasoned veterans; they wouldn't make the mistake of leaving valuables in camp without anyone guarding them. So, fighting over a possibly worthless supply is not a strategy these veterans would choose.

Roach tossed a fire potion into the fireplace to reignite the fire. Their food supplies were still plentiful, enough to keep them occupied for at least a week against this arrogant sinner. However, they had run out of delicious and perishable food, and what remained were things that were easy to preserve but tasted rather bad.

“That’s all…” Alessina pulled out a bag containing dry, hard-to-crush loaves of bread, bright yellow cheese chunks, two jars of pickled olives, some cured meat, and a few sausages.

Among the people here, apart from Vilandela and the fox girl who have big appetites, the rest have standard small appetites. Livia, needless to say, only needs half a piece of cheese, some olives, and two slices of bread for a meal; Roach is slightly better, also only needs two pieces of bread, a piece of cheese, and some dried meat to fill him up.

As for the Dragon Girl... we generally don't consider her appetite. She usually controls her food intake at a human level to cope with daily metabolic consumption. If she really wanted to eat her fill, the entire team's rations wouldn't be enough for one meal. Therefore, Vilandella said she would fly out to find a place to get food and bring some takeout for everyone.

If it weren't for her extremely limited carrying capacity and terrible endurance as a young dragon, Roach and his companions wouldn't even have needed to fight their way in; they could have simply had the dragon girl transport them to the royal city.

"Take a look around Tallinn and bring whatever you can. You can't carry much anyway, and by the time you get back, it'll be at least tomorrow night," Roach said after estimating her travel time.

"I guess I'll just have to make do with this today." So Livia looked at the toasted bread and jerky in front of her, which smelled of wheat, and for the first time, a troubled expression appeared on her little face. After trying to bite into them for a few minutes and finding that she couldn't chew them at all, she had no choice but to give up and eat only cheese slices and olive vegetables, along with some porridge made with jerky and a little oatmeal.

Chapter 170 Boosting the KPIs of the Lonely Old God

More than a month has passed since the demon invasion of Tallinn. For a city, it would be almost impossible to return to normal in such a short time. However, with the arrival of Count Talos and the rumor that the royal conferment team would arrive soon, the city's population is indeed slowly recovering.

But compared to the once bustling border city, all of this now appears lifeless. Even though the count ordered many decorative decorations to be set up in the city and invited many bards to create hype for the upcoming investiture ceremony and the arrival of the royal envoys, the desolation of the city is still clearly visible.

Due to the significant decrease in the purely consumer population, the farmers and ranchers on the outskirts of Tallinn who supply food to the city had an exceptionally difficult autumn. Large quantities of wheat and vegetables simply could not be sold, and meat and dairy products were even more so.

While grains can be stored or sold at a reduced price to merchants, meat is much harder to preserve. Curing meat requires a lot of salt, and as an inland city, the price of salt won't be low. After all, the difficulty of collecting sea salt, rock salt, and well salt is completely different.

You can't avoid slaughtering the livestock, because if you raise them for the winter, the cost of feed will be a net loss. They will also lose weight in winter. In other words, the meat production will not change or may even decrease, while the cost of feed may increase two or three times or even more.

The farmers gathered in the threshing ground in front of the mill. Everyone looked extremely dejected. They squatted in twos and threes on several large rocks, covering their faces with tattered felt hats. They looked listless, but in reality, everyone knew that they were just completely desperate.

While farmers, millers, and knights of manors might still have some wealth to spare, these farmers were truly desperate. They needed to sell their wheat, vegetables, and pigs to earn money to pay taxes, buy necessary seeds, repair farm tools, and rent cattle from nobles.

The windmill creaked and groaned as it turned weakly, turning the stone mill below to grind the wheat into coarse flour. The once bustling windmill mill was now deserted. After all, paying the usage fee and mill tax to grind wheat was meaningless now. Almost everyone in the city was dead, so who would come to eat this grain?

As for these farming families, they don't have the time or the money to eat bread. For every loaf of bread, they have to pay mill tax and usage fees, oven tax, and logging tax for the wood they cut down. With all these costs, they have no choice but to not eat bread.

Of course, this era is still somewhat better than the Dark Ages of the past. At least bakeries and bread ovens are no longer monopolized by nobles, and their control over the forests is not as strong as it used to be. Farmers no longer have to worry about being hanged by the roadside for cutting down the lord's trees.

But the problem remains the same. They no longer have to pay this money to the nobles, but they still have to pay it to the empire. Although it is much more formal and cheaper than the arbitrary collection methods of the lords in the past, paying money is still paying money. For these farmers, it is best to avoid paying this kind of money if possible.

Therefore, the manifestation of progress is that city dwellers have already enjoyed bread freedom, with various bakeries on every street, instead of the past monopoly of the aristocracy. However, in the suburbs and countryside, most farmers are still eating wheat porridge and gruel—where is their progress from the past? In the past, they ate wheat porridge and gruel because that was all they could eat, but now they eat it because they can't afford anything else.

To be honest, going from not being allowed to eat to having no money to eat is indeed an improvement. After all, money can be earned. If the head of the household really has some spare money or even secretly learned a skill, he can really build an oven at home to bake bread. As for this level of consumption, whether you can sustain it for a few months is your problem.

Milltown is the only place in the suburbs with its own kiln and bakery. It used to be a satellite town of the city, where merchants would stop over.

After all, it's still a few days' journey from Tallinn, so caravans going into or out of the city will need to replenish their food and water here—any savvy merchant wouldn't replenish supplies in the city—the prices there would wipe out half of your profits.

"Ding-dong~" The wind chimes at the door made a crisp sound. The young girl who was sleeping on the counter raised her head in confusion. Standing at the door was a girl with simple braids, without a headscarf, wearing a rather ordinary robe, and a black skirt with silver trim could be seen from under the robe.

The belt bore the badge of an alchemist's qualification. For a village built on a major transportation route like this, alchemists were not uncommon, nor were they just any ordinary person.

"Welcome, what would you like to order, sir..." The village girl wearing a red headscarf suddenly stopped, because there was actually nothing in the counter. Due to the events in Tallinn, many caravans had not yet arrived, and consumption in the city and locally had almost come to a standstill. Bread... is certainly easier to preserve than other things, but that is only relatively speaking.

On the wooden shelf behind her were rows of dark brown loaves of black bread, with some white ash still clinging to their surfaces. People who bought this bread wouldn't mind the ash and charcoal residue anyway, and the ash even had a slight preservative effect in a way.

(To be precise, the weak alkalinity neutralizes the acidity produced by the bread's spoilage. It may not feel spoiled, but it is still spoiled food. However, in this era between the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, this level of food safety issue is a minor problem.)

"Do you have white bread and pastry bread?" White bread is not the kind of toast or white bread sold in bakeries as modern people understand it. It still has a brown crust, but it is made with "white flour", which is wheat flour instead of rye flour and various grain bran or even sawdust.

Similarly, white bread still contains bran, making it quite coarse and more like unleavened, dry bread.

Pastry bread, on the other hand, is the kind of toast and bread that modern people are familiar with. It is made by fermenting pure wheat flour with brewer's yeast and then adding honey or sugar. Some even add a small amount of spices. It tastes soft and sweet. In the past, this stuff was also called "Queen's Bread" - meaning that if you didn't become a queen, you shouldn't expect to eat this stuff.

Of course, in a magical otherworld, coupled with the progress of the times, the distance between pastries and bread and ordinary people is now only the difference in their wallets, no longer the difference in status. Even the bakeries in Mill Town sell such things.

"Ah, this..." The village girl in front of her scratched her head, a few strands of flaxen hair falling out from under her red headscarf. An embarrassed expression appeared on her freckled face. These kinds of pastries and breads were produced in small quantities and even needed to be ordered in advance. After all, even farmers sometimes make a fortune and have things to celebrate.

In the current situation... nothing was baked at all. However, the village girl steadied herself and unleashed the ultimate weapon of a young man and woman who were not yet independent and helped out at the family shop: "Dad! A customer wants to buy bread and pastries!"

"Damn it, Maria, can't you do something good for the sake of the sun and fire?!" The cursing baker hurried down from upstairs, and upon seeing Vilandella, forced a smile onto his fat face. "Want to buy bread?"

"Yes, white bread and pastry bread. Other easy-to-preserve pastries are also acceptable." This kind of shop doesn't sell cakes and pastries. Vivi was just asking casually. However, there are big differences in the types of bread. For example, white bread can be divided into round bread and baguette bread, and some have added sugar or other seasonings.

As for sandwiches and cream breads, these are considered pastries and won't be available in this kind of bakery. You'll only find them in high-end pastry shops in the main city.

Similarly, they also sell food such as cream, cheese, and ham, not just bread. In other words, it is difficult for shops in these villages and towns to "specialize" in one type of product. Their approach is to sell all kinds of products, whether related or unrelated.

"Then I'm afraid we'll have to bake them fresh," the baker said with a troubled expression. Freshly baked would indeed be fresher and tastier, but it would also mean that he would need to light the oven, and if he baked a small quantity, the cost would be exorbitant.

"Don't worry, I'm buying a lot." After all, her own appetite is roughly equivalent to that of twenty people. As a beast-human, Alessina needs at least three people's worth of food based on the calorie requirements of a standard adult farmer. As for the little witch, her appetite is just scraps.

In other words, based on a weekly standard, she needs to buy enough staple food for at least 150 people, 90% of which she needs to consume herself in her dragon form within one or two days. Ash Dragons are omnivorous creatures, not solely carnivorous, and since she wasn't born a dragon but rather a dragon descendant, her diet is closer to that of humans.

"150 loaves of white bread and 20 loaves of pastry bread? Are you purchasing for the academy?" The baker looked puzzled. This was a very large quantity, and it could only be understood as purchasing for the academy, since only the academy would have so many customers. However, the academy usually had its own bakery and did not need to purchase from outside.

"Ah, look at me, I almost forgot." The Earl has notified all the towns in the territory about the delegation, which means the academy is purchasing food to supply the arriving visitors.

As for why he doesn't bake them himself, he has to be able to bake enough. Besides, guests are divided into different classes. As an adult, and especially as a baker, a member of the upper class (bakers in Europe are indeed members of the upper class, but this upper class is completely different from the wealthy or aristocratic class that most people understand), he understands this perfectly well.

Freshly baked pastries and exquisite breads were served to the college's VIPs, while large meals were provided to students, faculty, and staff, as well as ordinary guests. As for the attendants and subordinates, they could only eat bread that had been bought in advance and had become hard.

This job would normally have been taken by a bakery in the city, but since a large number of people in Tallinn have died, it just fits perfectly.

The main course for 150 people, along with a considerable amount of cream and fresh cheese, plus two hams, was enough for him to start the stove and get to work. However, it would take at least two days to prepare all that food.

In addition to staple foods, Vivi also found the village elder and bought a large quantity of vegetables and fruits from him. She managed to transport a batch of these to Roach's side, so at least they no longer had to eat bread with cured meat. Those bread were more of a weapon than food.

"Are you a local?" Weiwei asked, looking at the clumsy village girl.

“Yes, I was born here. Aren’t most people here locals? Outsiders rarely live here because it’s too close to the Black Forest.” Maria picked up a bag of flour with one hand and threw it onto the cutting board.

Kneading dough is not a task she should be doing. On one hand, this skill belongs to bakers, and women who will eventually get married are not allowed to learn it; on the other hand... this job is really not something a woman can do.

This is not the refined flour found in modern kitchens, but something with a lot of bran and even husks in it, and it hasn't been fermented yet. It requires a lot of strength and excellent endurance to knead it, especially when you need to make enough for hundreds of people.

Therefore, regardless of time or place, pastry chefs are often burly men with arms and thighs as thick as they are in ancient times. Women are usually responsible for baking and making pastries. Even so, this is only allowed in modern society. In ancient times, this was still considered a family craft.

“Goblins, evil spirits, and all sorts of weird grass spirits, basically all these damned things.” Maria shook her head, took a ham from the hook, and with a swift stroke, chopped off two pieces for Vivi and tossed them onto the rough scale. Once she felt the weight was about right, she wrapped them tightly in a large, clean leaf, placed them on the counter, and handed them to Vivi.

"So, what do you have in mind?"

"What idea?" The village girl looked utterly confused. "What do you mean? Me? Idea?"

"I mean, things like the future, dreams, and stuff like that."

"She only eats and doesn't work." The answer is immediate. Even if the family owns a bakery, the girl is required to help with the work from a very young age, as if they know that her future labor force belongs to her husband's family, so they have to earn back the cost as much as possible before she gets married.

“...a very...grand dream”

"What else can we do?" The village girl shrugged. Whether it was men or women, even the knights didn't seem to be able to just eat and not work. After all, the knights needed to hunt monsters that threatened the manor and farmers regularly, and sometimes they needed to hire adventurers to clear monster lairs, as well as to eliminate bandits and fight wars.

"Compared to something so unattainable, I hope to earn enough money before my birthday next month so I can buy that headscarf I've been eyeing..." As she said this, her expression fell, because the business people in the city and their shops had all gone out of business, so even if she earned enough money, she wouldn't be able to find anyone to buy it from.

"So, if you were to make a wish to a god, what would you wish for? I mean, if the god really would grant all your wishes."

“All you do is eat and not work.” Maria repeated. “Wait, the one you mentioned who made the wish must be a dark wizard, right? I’ve heard stories like that.” The village girl’s tone suddenly rose.

"After a knight saved a wizard, the wizard allowed him to make any wish. The knight wished that he would never have to work again and only need to eat. As a result, the wizard turned him into a pig. Hahahaha, a pig! Hahahaha!"

Vilandella didn't see the humor in the story, but perhaps for someone whose life is so dull and boring, it might provide some kind of... fun?

"Would you like to make this wish?"

"If it means turning into a pig, then forget it." After all, what do pigs eat in this era? They eat shit, and she obviously doesn't want to eat shit.

"What if you don't turn into a pig?"

"Hmm... I can't imagine what that would be like." Maria looked up and thought for a long time, unable to imagine any person or thing in this world that could eat without working. 【OvO:?ovo：?】

"So, if I had to make a more realistic wish... I hope I can move to the city." She was fed up with the mud, animal dung, and the rough men with their strange smells in the countryside. Of course, if nothing unexpected happened, this was something she would have to endure in her future life. Everyone had been through this, and in her understanding, no one was an exception.

Compared to going out on adventures or joining caravans to face various hardships and dangers, such as bandits on the road and monsters in the forest, this kind of plain and boring life is not so bad. Most people live like this.

"If I really take you to meet the gods..."

“Then I probably wouldn’t be able to say a word,” the village girl shrugged. “The most important person I’ve ever met was a knight’s squire. I can’t imagine what God is like. Don’t those priests say that God doesn’t have a fixed form?”

"Well, that makes sense." Weiwei silently noted down this person. Along the way, she had already sent the message to several people to boost the KPIs of a certain lonely old god.