Witch Troupe and the Undead

Meanwhile, another hall was used to store materials, including wood, stone bricks, and various metal ingots, which were used to seal up sewers and maze passages. However, the quantity was not large, as the academy's reserves of these conventional repair materials were insufficient. Elena had already dispatched several teams to search for materials in the mist, which was currently relatively safe, at least no monsters had appeared.

These resources are needed not only in the labyrinth but also in the structure of the academy itself. Who knows if it will turn into a battle between the angel legion and the great demon legion? If so, the academy fortress will be one of the few relatively safe havens in the capital, which also means that the academy will be under fierce attack, and no matter how much repair material is stored, it may not be enough.

In addition to these logistical facilities, the little witch also set up her own laboratory and lounge here. The tools and snacks that she temporarily brought to life amazed Elena.

Do you have information on the monsters in the underground labyrinth?

“Only the shallow area,” a senior girl said, carrying a large pile of scrolls. “These are previous exploration records and monster records. There aren’t many monsters in the shallow area, but the maze is very large, roughly the size of the entire southern district of the city. It has three levels, and there’s a sealed gate separating the third and fourth levels.”

"Yes, this is enough." The previous adventurers had already explored a fairly detailed map, but because the underground labyrinth itself was constantly being damaged, some dead ends may have collapsed to create new paths. Not to mention, it was connected to the sewers, and the monsters inside might also flood into the sewers, or vice versa.

"The connection points that were previously detected are all marked on the map." In order to prevent the entire academy from sinking, the academy had previously hired adventurers to explore these areas. The severely damaged areas were temporarily sealed off and reinforced, and new support structures were installed in some severely damaged maze areas.

However, no one knows whether these temporary reinforcements can withstand the simulated demons, so secondary reinforcement is needed, and it is also uncertain whether the simulated demons have created new passages.

Therefore, multiple monitoring posts need to be set up to ensure that the artificial demons do not infiltrate the academy from this area. The mages are confident in the academy's large barrier, but they are not so trusting of the ancient walls and labyrinth below.

"Is there any information about the maze's builder?"

"No..." the students who were helping to turn the pages answered. They were buried in a pile of documents that was taller than a person, helping the little witch to find information in these old papers.

"All we know is that it's an early Dark Age building, and that's about it. Judging from the architectural structure, it should be some kind of underground warehouse facility." Professor Wedel was also helping out here. He was responsible for manufacturing and maintaining engineering equipment, as well as reinforcing the last line of defense, which was the gate connecting to the testing ground.

"It could be an underground warehouse of an ancient war fortress, a secret passage, or even an underground shelter built for defensive operations in some extreme situation."

"It could also be some kind of large underground water system, an underground city even larger than the capital." Luo Qi felt a sense of familiarity from the architectural structure. It was very similar to the underground city of Tokyo, Japan. Some areas had obvious large flood channels and reservoirs, while others looked like some kind of air-raid shelter.

"A waterway? It's so big, I don't remember there being a city this big around the capital..."

"I'm not talking about domestic sewage discharge, but the kind that deals with seawater or river backflow." Luo Qi frowned. A thousand years is just a moment in geological terms; there shouldn't be any dramatic changes like the transformation of the sea into land.

However, this is on the premise that this is a world without gods or magic. If it does exist, take the World Ridge Mountains as an example. It used to be an ordinary plateau and valley. The mountains were forcibly squeezed out by the Earth Goddess through a divine punishment of tectonic plate collision.

In a world where there are genuine powerful landforms and divinely created landforms, it's somewhat ridiculous to discuss geological changes over a period of time. For example, the still-burning Fire Rift Valley in the Black Abyss Cemetery is, in a sense, a powerful landform blasted out by them.

"Perhaps the plains surrounding the capital were once lakes or even oceans..."

“You mean the ocean-land change hypothesis? That’s certainly possible,” Ms. Elena took over the topic. She was a life-type mage, especially a shapeshifter. Extinct ancient creatures were her compulsory course or her main research subject. Although she mainly focused on giant beasts, she could not ignore ordinary creatures either.

“Indeed, in some places you can find shellfish and snails that theoretically only exist in the deep sea. In fact, my first ‘golden achievement’ was based on a transformation theory of a deep-sea creature that was originally extinct.” Elena showed a hint of reminiscence. “I remember it was also the remains that were dug out deep in a mountain range, which was how I completed the most crucial step.” As for what the transformation theory was, she didn’t say, but Livia showed a very interested expression.

“Deep-sea creatures and the theory of metamorphosis…” Roach glanced at the gray-haired woman, guessing her age and… whether the form before him was the real form or a form that had already molted.

"Oh? Professor Roach knows about this too?"

“I know of a deep-sea creature, a jellyfish, whose special ability is to revert to its juvenile form when its lifespan comes to an end. Therefore, it is considered to be a real-life ‘immortal’ creature. However, some scholars believe that this metamorphosis is essentially a form of death, and the newborn jellyfish is not the same as the one in the past.”

"It seems Professor Roach has a wide range of interests." Elena gave a meaningful look, but Roach felt that he was probably right. She must have also discovered the deep-sea creatures similar to the immortal jellyfish in this world, and thus laid the foundation for her metamorphosis theory, which earned her the title of the Hundred-Faced Witch.

"If it's some kind of underground water storage system... then this ruin isn't very valuable." No one would put any precious treasures in a place that's constantly flooded, which made the little witch look very disappointed.

"Oh, that's just my guess. At least these areas do look a bit like... reservoirs. However, the presence of reservoirs doesn't necessarily mean there's an underground drainage system." It's also possible that the capital was once a desert, and this area is a place to store groundwater for the city. It could also be a water source prepared for war or some kind of long-term underground life.

"After all, the design of these branching paths resembles some kind of defensive measure. I don't think a simple water storage facility would need such a thing." On the ancient parchment were sketches of the passageways drawn with charcoal by adventurers, and the narrow, low vaulted ceilings clearly resembled defensive measures.

"It looks more like... a product designed to counter aerial attacks or large-scale magical bombardment."

"Oh, Professor Roach also knows about city defense..."

"I know a little..." Those who dig graves don't necessarily dig up graves; they may also find ancient city ruins. Therefore, identifying ancient hidden military tunnels and city defense measures to reconstruct the city's structure and understand how many people lived there and how they lived are all very important subjects.

So, Roach may not understand ancient military doctrines, or how to set up camp, organize defense and offense, but to say that he doesn't know what a fortress looks like is nonsense—he doesn't even need to understand the underlying principles. He can translate the things he has seen, learned, and read about in books that have practical combat cases into a very professional fortress design.

Of course, he wouldn't actually be a master craftsman. He only knew roughly what shape and structure the thing should look like, how to build it, what materials to use, and how to handle the details. He wasn't completely clueless, but he was practically a complete novice.

Unless his old friends who specialize in studying ancient buildings, especially those who restore ancient buildings using traditional methods, also travel through time, they would be able to handle this job. And they would have to be experts in European architecture. As a pioneer on the grave, he wouldn't be able to do it.

"I know a little bit about it. We can talk about it later?"

"Let's chat!" Luo Qi also indicated that he could chat, but only for about five dollars' worth of conversation; he couldn't keep up with anything more.

Chapter 364 Strange Monsters in the Underground Palace

At the entrance to the maze, the relit wall lamps illuminated the entire space, and the mottled and blurred runes on the door were much clearer than before. Two mages were recharging and reinforcing the runes to defend against possible attacks from deep underground.

"Isn't Old Ma coming?" Leslie looked around and found that there were only four people: herself, Roach, Livia, and Alessina. Lulua was not there.

"He has to help guard the outside, and so does Lulua. She's a saint and needs to go out with the Church of the Night to collect resources and necessary supplies." Only Lulua and the others can do this job. The Night Clan are experts in covert operations. Also, the Night God's abilities aren't very effective against demons, so the task of collecting supplies falls to them.

“I have a feeling of unease…” Leslie gripped the magic bow in her hand. During this time, Roach had processed the rune stone again, scrapping three of its sides. Finally, he successfully added a new rune effect to the sixth side. Once activated, it would generate 24 or 24 orbs of psychic energy, which could then be launched in the next attack to create a localized rain of arrows.

However, it requires a relatively long charging time, making it a burst effect that effectively compensates for the mermaids' lack of combat power when they lack magic crossbow ammunition.

"Open the gate!" Two school workers turned the winch, and the brass-reinforced gate slowly opened, revealing the pitted and uneven corridor inside.

The main structural material of the maze is an incredibly sturdy gray hard rock. Even so, under the erosion of time, it has developed grooves and ravines, with stalactites layered and piled up at the base of the walls due to water erosion.

Almost the instant the door opened and light streamed in, two brown goblins, or rather, imps, rushed out. These were monster-type goblins, and they brandished their black daggers as they pounced on the nearest school janitor.

"Ah!!!" The rather burly-looking man screamed and scrambled backward. This kind of "kid" was no novice monster; in a group setting, it was an enemy that only the "elite" class of adventurers could deal with.

"Whoosh!" An arrow made of rock fragments struck the head of the foremost monster, the exploding rock blasting its face into a bloody mess, while the other monster's dagger was stopped by an unparalleled greatsword before it could reach the school worker.

Alessina kicked it away, then swung her greatsword, killing the imp instantly. After their deaths, the simple armor on the two monsters and the black daggers in their hands turned into a ball of shadowy flames and disappeared, leaving only two brownish-red corpses.

"Don't monsters leave behind their equipment?" This was the first time Roach had encountered such a situation. The monsters he had encountered before were all beast-shaped, not humanoid monsters, especially humanoid monsters without equipment. Oh, necromancers don't count; strictly speaking, they are not "monsters" but rather "constructs."

“They’re summoned,” Livia turned to Roach and explained in a low voice. The weapons of goblins and similar monsters are summoned, and as their strength increases, they gradually become more elaborate and sophisticated, and begin to possess additional damage caused by shadow magic or savage chaotic magic.

"The goblin community is generally divided into five classes, and these two belong to the lowest class, the Stone Goblin." They are called goblins or gnomes because they are monsters born from the earth. The lowest class is the Stone Goblin or Earth Goblin; the next class up is the Goblin Infantry or Goblin Soldier, and above that are the Knights, Commanders, and the very rare Goblin King.

The reason they're called "little devils" instead of goblins or gnomes as they used to be is that the real gnomes (Gnomes) and goblins are protesting this stigma. Considering the gold coins from the Trade Federation, people now call these monsters "little devils," since it's a homonym for goblin.

"Stone golems have appeared at the gate..." Elena was a little worried. Stone golems are not enemies that novice adventurers can deal with. Their appearance so close to the gate means that their habitat has been destroyed and they have been driven out by more powerful monsters.

"Be careful, there may be a large swarm of goblins inside the maze."

“I know, I’ve dealt with these kinds of monsters quite a lot…” These kinds of monsters are very common in the Orc Alliance. After all, they are earth-attribute monsters, and the Orcs’ belief in the Earth Goddess is quite unique, so these kinds of monsters are quite common, even rampant.

Of course, Alessina also stated that this proliferation was a deliberate act by the tribe. After all, for sub-adult orc warriors or recruits, there was nothing more suitable than these gregarious monsters with a certain level of intelligence and tactics, capable of using weapons, to serve as tools for recruits to kill and draw blood.

Every year, the tribal alliance organizes large-scale monster hunts, sending these sub-adult orcs to hunt and capture these monsters. The little devils who are captured are beaten half to death and then thrown into the training grounds to be trained by the teenagers.

As a beast-human warrior, she has killed countless imps, especially those of the Stone Imp rank, and even two imp leaders.

“Pay attention to their weapons. The lowest-level stone goblin's dagger is only equivalent to a sharp obsidian shard. Normal armor, shields, and even weapon parries can shatter it. Once the weapon is broken, the opponent will try to escape. The regeneration time of the shadow weapon is 12 hours. That is to say, if you find the goblin running away and do not chase after it, it will come back to attack you at most 12 hours later.”

"Upon reaching the infantry rank, it transforms into a runic dagger, indistinguishable from a regular steel dagger, and possesses a shadow corrosion effect. It's advisable not to engage in direct combat if your weapon isn't up to par... um, I think we shouldn't need to worry about this unless we encounter the Little Demon King."

Alessina instinctively followed the routine she used to follow when training those sub-adult beastmen warriors, and then she saw the little witch's confused look. Roach and Leslie also looked like they were listening very attentively, but not taking it seriously.

She then realized that her group didn't really need to worry about this issue. The only thing missing from her Wupeng Sword and legendary weapon was a "legendary act" and enough time for inheritance. In this world where idealism and materialism coexist, legends and stories really do have some effect.

Leslie's magic bow is also a legitimate magical weapon, not to mention Roach's Fragment of Nightlight... it's a genuine divine artifact, a divine artifact personally created by the true god. Even the Little Demon King's decapitation sword probably can't compete with it in terms of material and strength.

Even the little witch wasn't afraid, because those shadow weapons were essentially magic, not physical materials. With her magic resistance, the daggers of ordinary imps were probably just a loose mass of shadow magic in her eyes, and hitting her would be no different from a gust of wind.

"The gate will not be closed, but please clear out the monsters in the vicinity as much as possible. Alternatively, if you do not wish to clear them, you can leave a marker. Currently, the surface has not been attacked, and the academy can send some battle mages to assist."

These battle mages were graduates of the academy, residing nearby, and returned upon hearing the bell. Furthermore, within the empire's, especially the capital's, defense system, the academy was structured like a fortress primarily because: education was merely a secondary function; its true primary role was—"Commanding the Imperial Battle Mage Corps fortress."

Yes, before the first Great Sage reformed it into a place of universal education, the academy was always the headquarters fortress of the Battle Mage Legion, and this function has not been abolished to this day.

Once the capital is attacked, all battle mages, except those already under the jurisdiction of the various knightly orders, will need to report here and receive command to operate the academy's war arrays and those large magic towers—those things are usually used by students for patrols and drills, but that doesn't mean they will be used during wartime.

“Understood. Anyway, with Miss’s physical abilities, we can’t go very far…” Roach indicated that this task was somewhat challenging for Livia. Compared to simply taking a walk outside, it would consume more physical strength and energy, but it could still be considered a form of exercise.

The biggest problem with the spoofing demons is their ability to grow and constantly create replicas. You don't know if the people around you are replacement replicas, making it difficult for humanity to unite. At the same time, spoofing demons often use religion and faith to control some people who have not been replicated as a cover to further spread these replicas.

In terms of combat power alone, as long as the clones do not capture samples with high combat power and enough flesh and blood materials, there is no need to worry. The combat power of the clones may grow a bit due to the experience gained from repeated rebirths, much faster than that of normal people. However, to progress from an ordinary person to mastering the extraordinary is not something that can be done simply by dying a few more times.

For Alessina, enemies of this caliber could wipe out a squad with a single strike. The real problem was that this flesh-erosion was difficult to defend against, and if left unchecked, it would become a real problem if it captured units like battle mages.

Furthermore, another reason why the academy did not mobilize all its combat power is that the simulated demons do not have the ability to create mist, so the source of this mist is not the simulated demons, or at least it is not a simple simulated demon, but a demon that has undergone some kind of evolution and modification.

Moreover, the simulated demon units do not rely on the mist. Therefore, any mage or court advisor with even a slight understanding of demonology can conclude that there are at least two types of demons invading the capital, not just one simulated demon—otherwise, this ineffective mist would be meaningless.

"There is no fog in the underground labyrinth area so far, but if you do find fog, retreat. Although I think Miss Livia should be able to guess why with her knowledge."

“Hmm~ Mist Demon,” Livia said. The Mist Demon is a demonic creature from the Dream Realm that conceals its true form with mist. It can manipulate the mist to form anyone it has ever seen and read the memories of any creature in the mist that does not have dream resistance. It is a master of illusion from hell.

Just when you think you can easily kill this high-level demon by seeing through its tricks, you'll find that it might be another huge trap lying in the open—the Mist Demon has quite advanced melee abilities, but it lacks magical abilities other than illusion.

"Besides the Mist Demon, it could also be the Mist Demon, Water Demon, or Shadow Demon. These types also rely on the mist. However, the Shadow Demon usually appears at night, so it's unlikely to appear during the day," Elena added. In fact, there are quite a few demons that rely on the mist, but the Mist Demon is the most classic example. In addition, there are some demons that do not rely on the mist but still use the misty environment, and that number is even greater.

What Elena didn't mention was that there was another possibility: the arrival of a great demon like a sub-lord, along with an entire demon legion. They lurked in the fog, using the dense fog as cover to continuously summon and increase the number of their companions, ultimately launching a large-scale attack. The fog was merely a strategic spell effect, not a necessary factor.

This is why Old Ma stayed on the city wall. He was the only one capable of recognizing this tactic. No matter what kind of sub-lord or great demon came from the other side, as long as it was above the level of the Dream Realm, he had basically beaten them all, or at least seen them.

The door remained open to a width of 2 meters, and the lights seemed to be swallowed up by the inky darkness, only illuminating a small section of the ground and wall near the door.

Several hastily recruited guards were setting up barricades and makeshift roadblocks at the gate, carrying logs. In front of them, a battle mage was setting up runes for magical traps and installing several amplifying crystal bases in an open area outside the gate to gather the spiritual energy of the refugees and thus power the psychic barrier.

"Light~" Livia stretched out her small hand, and the light shining through the door gathered towards her palm as if time and space were distorted, eventually forming a ball of light floating beside her. This brief ball of light was then absorbed by the small yellow flower on the staff, and the flower bloomed, with a beam of warm light shining out from the flower's core, just like a flashlight.

"Hmph~ Hmph~" The little witch showed a proud expression, her little mouth slightly pursed as if waiting to be praised.

However, when she turned her head, she saw that her companions had metal tubes about one and a half fingers long hanging from their belts. The blue crystals inside emitted a steady light that illuminated the surroundings. These were Everlasting Lamps, an expensive adventure device. They were made of runes that absorbed various magical energy and converted it into light, and magic storage crystals. They could provide light in almost any environment.

Many ancient magical ruins and libraries use these crystal lamps for lighting, as they are much safer than ever-burning torches, especially those ruin libraries—lighting torches in a library is really tantamount to messing with your own collection of books.

The little witch's expression froze instantly, then she angrily kicked a pebble on the ground. The pebble flew into the dark passageway, seemingly hitting something, and then a dark shadow pounced like lightning.

"Clang!" The black lightning struck the blade of the greatsword and exploded into a burst of sparks. It was a long, black creature with arcs of electricity wrapped around its body.

"What is this?"

"do not know……"

"It looks like a sausage that the young lady brought to life." It looked exactly like a sausage wrapped in thunder, and Roach could even see mold spots on the black casing... Almost everyone looked at Livia, who seemed a little confused and puzzled. Then she opened her small bag, took out a cloth bag of snacks, and shook it onto the ground.

A fat sausage fell to the ground, covered in dust, but it quickly got up. After looking around in confusion, it spotted the black sausage opposite it. Suddenly, the sausage, which had grown long, thin arms and legs, summoned a silver iron fork from somewhere.

"Ah, you black knight, why do you block my way?"

"..." The black sausage said nothing, its body crackling with lightning as it charged straight at him.

After thinking for a second, Livia lifted her skirt, took a step, and walked around the two sausages that were tangled together. Roach and the others also walked around them with almost speechless calm.

The affected, grating sound of grilled sausages, as if they were stuffed with three chivalric novels, echoed from the passageway behind, along with the clanging of forks against sausages.

"Young Miss, why are there live food items here?!"

"Magic?" Livia tilted her head. This was the academy's underground, where magic was abundant. So it wasn't impossible for some strange monster to appear based on the sausages lost by adventurers left behind here.

But unlike her animated snacks, this thing seems to have little intelligence; it just instinctively attacks anything that enters its attack range, without even switching targets.

"My... my luck in martial arts, is it... coming to an end?" From the ruptured casing, charred pork paste gushed out, the juices rolling down the crack onto the ground, steaming hot, while the black blood sausage was pinned to the wall bricks by a fork, the electric arc heating the iron fork to a scorching red.

“Speaking of which, that blood sausage should still be edible, right?” Leslie suddenly said.

Then we saw Livia's somewhat disgusted expression. She was the least picky eater among us. If even she had this expression, then... we all thought it was better not to challenge the limits of our taste buds and stomachs. This was definitely a top-tier, high-end game.

"Hoo~ hoo~" A strange breathing sound seemed to come from the dark space, which made Alessina put down the greatsword she was carrying on her shoulder, and Roach also drew the fragment of the Nightlight.

Almost immediately after assuming a fighting stance, an incredibly ugly pig face appeared around the corner. Upon seeing Roach and his group, it let out a sharp "squeak!" and turned to run away, seemingly even more frightened than Roach and his companions.

"Ah..." Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment at this situation they had never encountered before. In the end, Livia pointed ahead, signaling them to give chase, but given her speed and stamina, no one seemed sure if they could catch up.

Chapter 365 Dreaming of Becoming a Pokémon Master

"Squeak!" The pig-faced monster let out a sharp cry, constantly fleeing through the dark tunnel, throwing things behind it, such as some kind of knife, a wooden fork left behind by some adventurer, and other miscellaneous items.

All of these things crashed into an invisible atmospheric barrier and bounced off. Livia, panting, jogged slowly behind, lifting her skirt and extending one hand to maintain this temporary defensive barrier.

This wasn't real magic or secret arts; it was simply her using her abilities to forcibly control the air to form a moving air cushion.

Finally, after chasing for nearly two hundred meters, they finally cornered the pig-faced monster. The monster leaned against a pile of trash and waste, which was clearly left behind or discarded by adventurers.

There were broken pots, damaged grills, several broken weapon fragments haphazardly stuck in a wooden barrel, and a large pile of things resembling moldy bread mummies and cured meat chunks.

These items were collected and categorized, forming a wall of clutter. In front of the wall stood a table with two missing legs, propped up with stones, and on it was an oil lamp filled with fireflies but without oil. It looked like a general store counter in a maze.

The pig-faced monster leaned against the clutter, trembling all over, its two short legs jutting out forward as if it could shrink itself and squeeze into the gaps in the clutter behind it.

As Alessina approached, the pig-faced monster let out an even sharper shriek and frantically grabbed a broken kitchen knife, throwing it at him. "Clang!" Alessina simply tilted the blade of his sword and deflected the broken piece.

The pig-faced monster immediately lay down on the ground, clasped its hands together, and shook its head up and down repeatedly. "Is it... begging for mercy?" Leslie hooked the invisible magic string, and countless rock fragments gathered in front of the runestone, forming a cone-shaped arrow.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a monster beg for mercy... Even the little brats who are most like intelligent beings don't beg for mercy." Alessina was also a little scratching her head. As a beastman warrior, she couldn't bring herself to attack an unarmed enemy who was begging for mercy; that would require a lot of mental preparation.

"Huff~" Livia gasped for breath, her hands on her knees, looking like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. Maintaining the shield and running were both options, but the latter was probably taking a bigger toll on her.

However, after the little witch arrived, the pig-faced man calmed down a bit, tilting his head to look at the blonde loli in front of him. The latter also looked at him with a calm gaze. Soon, Livia raised her head to look at her companion: "No hostility."