Witch Troupe and the Undead

The witch could hear the voice of the pig-faced man's soul and read his emotions and surface thoughts, but she usually didn't do it on purpose, as it would be too noisy. Even so, in the big city, the various noises around her would still make the witch feel very noisy.

This is why she often stays in her room, only going out for walks in the early morning and evening when there are fewer people around.

The witch slightly opened her mouth, and her silent words pierced the pig-faced man's brain like a sharp blade. The latter was stunned for a moment before excitedly letting out a series of squeaking screams.

“He said he was an adventurer, or at least he used to be, but he became like this after coming into contact with a strange artifact deep inside the labyrinth,” Livia said, pointing at the pig-faced monster. “He said he could give some of the corrupted things the ability to act on their own, so he collected these remnants left in the labyrinth to protect himself. But the guards he created were killed by my sausage, and he thought they were other people who had been cursed in the same way, so he came to check.”

"I see... So, why is he so afraid of Alessina?"

"Hmm, let me ask~" Livia began her silent communication with the pig-faced man again. The latter could communicate with her without even making a sound, or rather, this one-sided communication was not a comfortable thing. The witch's voice was like a sharp blade stirring up brain matter, as if it wanted to physically dig out what you wanted to express from the depths of your brain.

"Oh, he said he was from the North, but not as a warrior. He was a cook, but he knew a little about combat. He was mainly a logistics person who came down with the adventure team, responsible for carrying supplies and cooking."

“That’s not surprising.” Alessina planted the greatsword in the ground. The people of the North, especially those living in the eastern part of the North Province, border the Orc Alliance, and there are many conflicts and frictions between them. This guy has probably been bullied by orcs or beastmen, or even worse.

"Yes, his village was destroyed by a group of beastman warriors." Beastman warriors tend to use heavy weapons such as greatswords, warhammers, and halberds. Therefore, when the pig-faced man saw Alessina wielding the Greatsword of Wupeng, he did not hesitate to run away. When he could not escape, he knelt down and begged for mercy.

"What kind of artifact is it?" Roach asked curiously. Making objects come to life was the little witch's ability, and this was the first time he had seen anyone else who could do it. He was undoubtedly very interested in that artifact, and the little witch felt the same way.

Despite her usual expressionless and seemingly indifferent demeanor, Livia is actually quite curious about her background and true identity, though she hides this worry and curiosity within herself.

Having been out for so long, she could already sense that she was fundamentally different from other mages and even witches. However, the little witch's personality meant that she wouldn't dwell on such matters too much, nor would she get caught up in internal conflict because of them. This didn't mean she wouldn't be curious about it.

The exchange was like torture, which made the pig-faced man's expression visibly stiffen, and his skin even showed signs of physical dryness and decay. This showed that communicating with the little witch in this way could indeed cause direct damage to both the soul and the body.

Or perhaps this ability is inherently an offensive one, but Livia's personality dictates that she won't use it to attack enemies, or perhaps she's unaware of this.

"Yes, a regular octahedron, suspended on a cylindrical base, with a glowing sphere inside. Upon contact, it released some kind of pulse wave, killing all the adventurers except him. He was transformed into his current form, or more accurately, he fused with a lower-level boarman warrior to become what he is now."

"It seems unlikely to be a temple or laboratory, or even a refuge..."

"Um"

"However, our top priority is to resolve the issue of the simulated demons. We can explore the labyrinth later." Roach indicated that the artifact wouldn't grow legs and run away, so it wouldn't be too late to explore it after resolving the fog issue. Moreover, a large amount of manpower and resources could be mobilized then.

"Hmm~ He said he could be our guide or provide some supplies, but he'd need to pay."

"Money? What use would he have for money?" What good would money do in this underground labyrinth?

“It’s food. He’ll trade what he finds for food.”

"Oh? The mysterious merchant of the labyrinth?" Leslie exclaimed in surprise. "I thought this kind of thing was something from adventure novels!"

"What do you have?" The merman approached the pig-faced monster's counter, and the latter immediately put on a fawning expression, rummaging through the pile of clutter behind him and pulling out a small box containing four bottles of potions.

“Lion Potion, Agility Enhancer, Life Loss and Exhaustion” Roach recognized the names of these potions after a few checks. After all, Livia was a potion master, and they had drunk and seen far too many potions.

The Lion's Elixir is a commonly used potion among adventurers. Drinking it grants an increase in strength and courage, and it is generally used by front-line warriors. Alessina's potion pouch contains two bottles of this high-grade product made by the little witch.

Agility Enhancer is a potion additive that can be mixed with other potions to improve agility or balance. The latter two are poisons that are applied to weapons. The former causes life force to drain, slowly weakening the enemy, while the latter accelerates the enemy's fatigue. When the two are mixed together, they can greatly weaken the enemy's ability to continue fighting in close combat.

Unfortunately, Roach and his companions had no use for these things. So the pig-faced monster dug out a lot more items, all of which came from the corpses and camps of adventurers who had entered the labyrinth and sewers. Apart from a few gem fragments that were somewhat useful, the rest were not very useful, at least not for Roach and his companions.

However, the pig-faced monster was already quite satisfied with the few large pieces of hard, dry bread that could kill a person in exchange. Here, he could only live on insects and moss, and human food was rarely available to him. The black blood sausage he had previously kept was a treasure he had cherished for a long time and was reluctant to eat. He had activated the blood sausage to prevent it from being stolen.

In the end, he still met his tragic end at the hands of the Sausage Knight, pierced through by an iron fork. What a sad story! However, since the battle scene between the Sausage Knight and the Black Sausage should not have been destroyed by the monsters, we should be able to retrieve those two sausages by now.

Before leaving, Livia and the pig-faced monster squatted together and talked for a while. The little witch had a very happy smile on her face, and even the fatigue from running was relieved a lot.

What are they talking about?

“Snack battle…” Roach said expressionlessly. He was the only one here who could understand the little witch’s silent words, probably because of the contract he signed at the beginning. And the system that had no presence at all jumped out again at this moment.

[Aspiring to become a Pokémon Master: Obtain Activated Snacks for Battle: 0//30]

This left Roach speechless, but judging from the witch's appearance, he suspected that Livia might actually hold something similar to a Pokémon tournament at the academy later.

The pig-faced monster said he didn't have any more food to activate the creature, but he would consider the suggestion and try to find the right food to activate it, or he could ask Roach and the others for some food.

Roach told the guy that he could go to the gate and get some food there. Although the black sausage guy hadn't defeated the sausage knight, his ability to ambush Alessina in the dark showed that he had some fighting ability.

Livia drew a simple rune on his forehead so that the battle mages wouldn't attack him.

After saying goodbye to the pig-faced monster who was packing his luggage, the group approached the first breach in the maze according to the simple hand-drawn map given to them by the pig-faced monster. It wasn't far from the pig-faced monster's "general store," but he also reminded Roach and the others to be careful of monsters. The monster population in the underground maze had recently undergone significant changes, and some unknown and unfamiliar monsters had also appeared here.

After walking a few steps along the narrow passage, I encountered a giant spider. Unfortunately, it was an insectivorous spider that feeds on mutated insects underground. Although it looked ferocious and terrifying, it was as docile as the huntsman spider (it will leave on its own after eating all the cockroaches in your house).

Urged on by Livia waving her staff, the giant spider slowly moved its eight legs to make way, dragging its fat belly as it continued to lie by the roadside, waiting for the unlucky giant beetles to deliver their goods.

Passing through the spider's lair, you can hear the sound of running water from the sewers. A hole at least seven or eight meters in size has been opened in the wall. Almost the instant the light finds the hole, several giant centipedes, each at least as thick as an adult's thigh, pounce on it.

"Ah!" Livia exclaimed, then quickly hid behind Roach, one hand gripping Roach's clothes, the other holding her staff and pointing it forward, her face slightly pale and her eyes tightly closed.

"Get out of the way!" Roach waved his hand forcefully, signaling Alessina to move aside. Then, a blazing beam of light shot out from the staff, scorching the air and tearing the giant centipede in front in two.

Almost the instant the centipede corpses hit the ground, the giant insectivorous spider scurried over them with incredible speed, its two strands of silk catching the two giant centipedes and quickly packing them into two silken cocoons, which it then dragged back to its nest to devour.

It seems that it came here to live because it was attracted by the giant centipedes and other insect monsters that kept flowing into the sewers. No wonder it has grown so fat—after all, the food is right at its doorstep, so it can eat and drink to its heart's content without having to move much.

After Alessina killed the last centipede with a single sword strike, there were no more monsters at the gap.

“Mark the location…” Roach pulled out a small crystal shard and inserted it into the crack in the wall, and then Livia began to prepare the barrier.

A few minutes later, a temporary barrier constructed with the witch's power sealed the gap in the door. The crystal shard was a fragment of the Omen Crystal, which was connected to the Omen Crystal Sphere inside the academy. Simply put, the Omen Crystal Sphere could sense the location and direction of fragments over a considerable area.

After activating the fragment's energy, the academy should immediately send craftsmen and battle mages to reinforce the barrier and repair the walls to prevent things from the sewers from getting in, especially those replicas of the pseudo-demons or even the pseudo-demons themselves.

Meanwhile, shadowy figures appeared on the streets of the capital. These figures were twisted and inhuman, swaying and staggering through the thick fog as they approached the shelters where people were still alive.

"Woo~" The first sound was the bugle call from the prison. These shadows seemed to know which targets were easiest to deal with in the capital. The academy and the cathedral were undoubtedly the most difficult, followed by the palace and the imperial fortress.

As for prisons, they are just a thick wall compared to the small chapels and other refuges where commoners and the lower classes gather. For these monsters emerging from the rifts of hell, they are not much of an obstacle.

Countless shadows wriggled and approached the city wall, their limbs strangely twisted, as if human and animal limbs had been randomly pieced together onto a black lump of flesh.

"Crawling demons?" Old Ma looked at the thick fog in the distance with disbelief. Such a grand spectacle was just to summon a group of crawling demons? These demons reside on the surface of Hell, or more accurately, on the boundary line of Hell. The remnants of souls and the remnants of the world form these twisted things.

They are like a lump of glue, sticking anything that doesn't belong to them to themselves—the corpses of demons, the flesh and blood of creatures, even the lifeless rocks and dead trees of hell—and these things become their limbs.

It belongs to the lowest level of demons, and it is difficult to even call it a demon. It is just a kind of garbage and residue born in the process of forming demons and the hell layer. For many demons who still retain the habit of eating, it is also a kind of food that can be obtained everywhere.

Its core, pieced together from mottled and chaotic magic and tiny fragments of soul, serves as a temporary blood pack for some demons eager to replenish their energy, making it no different from a crawling worm on the ground in Hell.

However, in the real world, it's a different story. These writhing demons also possess hellish magic, which means they can use the lowest level of hellish spells and their bodies are protected by magic, making it difficult for ordinary weapons to inflict full damage.

Even enchanted or alchemical weapons are only moderately effective against these writhing demons. They have no obvious weaknesses, but they also don't have any particular strengths. Apart from wielding weapons and claws that they've picked up or that have simply grown onto their limbs to launch chaotic attacks, they don't possess any martial arts skills.

The hellish spells they knew were limited to the most basic Hellfire Arrow, these weak arrows of hellfire that constantly struck the prison walls, leaving fist-sized craters.

"Whoosh!" Arrows rained down on the foremost writhing demons, followed by the city defense crossbows, and then the magic crossbows' wind and explosive projectiles, especially the latter, each shot capable of tearing a writhing demon apart.

While worms have resistance to conventional weapons, their structure or life force is not particularly robust. Simply put, although they have considerable damage reduction, their health is at the level of normal mobs, meaning they can be easily killed by overwhelming damage.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have the "honorable name" of Hell Residue. After the worm-like demon dies, the core flesh and blood chunks quickly shrink into a small, pitch-black ball, which is the "Seed of Hell." It can be used to cultivate Hell-specific magic potions, or simply to extract magic power as a substitute for magic crystals. However, this extracted magic power is extremely chaotic, similar to primordial magic power.

In addition, Hell Seeds are also excellent offerings and materials for summoning larger demons...

"Hmm...something's not right..." Although the Seed of Hell can be used as a sacrifice and material to summon high-level demons, there should be no need for it now that the Rift of Hell has already been torn open, unless... Old Ma's eyes narrowed slightly. It seems to be an "old friend" again. That insidious and cunning smell is really disgusting!

Chapter 366 Devil's Park

The Hell Seeds left behind by the Creepers remained on the ground and city walls. Faced with the continuous attacks of the Creepers, no one had time to collect and deal with these Hell Seeds. The combat personnel on the prison side consisted of only about 100 prison guards, more than 50 town guards who had not had time to run back to the fortress, and several hundred adventurers and armed civilians.

This force is sufficient to deal with ordinary human siege teams, but it is not enough to face thousands of worms. Worms are the lowest level of demons, but they are still equivalent to soldiers of the Extraordinary I level.

In other words, its strength is almost at the limit of human capability; an ordinary armed civilian would be knocked to their knees with just one blow, or even suffer a broken arm.

Therefore, these armed civilians could only hide behind soldiers and adventurers, using crossbows, stones and other defensive tools to fight off the worms that approached the city walls, while also being careful not to be hit by hellfire arrows, which would be fatal for civilians who lacked protective gear.

This is why countries are extremely wary of demon summoning and demon rifts. High-level demons are difficult to enter on a large scale. The real problem is that low-level demons like worms have an overwhelming advantage over regular armies and ordinary people.

In the event of a large-scale demon invasion, fortresses guarded by organized superhuman armies might be safe, but the town guards and militias in villages and towns would absolutely not be able to withstand it, and ordinary towns and villages would be wiped out by demons in less than a day.

Even soldiers of the same Transcendent I rank are at a disadvantage when dealing with a single Creeper. The Creeper has no vital points, is tireless, and is protected by hellish magic, which limits the lethality of ordinary weapons.

Only spellcasters could easily deal with such low-level demons, but there were very few spellcasters in the prison, and most of them were sealers responsible for reinforcing the prison seals and magical alarms. They didn't know many combat spells, and their few elemental spells were like a few drops of water scattered into a pond when they fell on the worm demons, not even causing a ripple.

"The demons are attacking!" Despite being hit by arrows, spells, and defensive tools, the demons still managed to scale the walls and engage in fierce battles with the defenders and adventurers on the city walls.

Once the melee began, these writhing demons displayed their demonic fighting prowess, and casualties suddenly began to rise. Many inexperienced prison guards were not even able to react before being pierced and torn apart by several tree root-like limbs, and then their weapons and limbs became part of the writhing demons.

"Clang!" The serpentine curved sword blocked the slashing claws, and then plunged it into the soft body of the writhing demon, splitting it open and tearing it apart.

"Form a shield formation and hold on! These demons are nothing but the lowest of the low!" Rhine smashed a demon away with his hammer. The intelligence agents and guards also joined the battle on the city wall. Even a group of death row inmates imprisoned in the Black Prison were released because they were relatively easy to control. After all, if they didn't fight, they would die anyway when surrounded by demons.

After this fresh force joined the ranks, the defenders finally drove the demons off the city walls, at the cost of double-digit casualties. For a total of no more than 1000 defenders, this was a considerable loss.

"These are just the lowest level of worm demons..." Rhine lay on the city wall looking down. The Hell Seeds were burning silently on the ground. It seemed that the demons had not taken these Hell Seeds with them when they left.

More writhing demons were slowly crawling out of the fog; the remnants of hell were as numerous as they could be, and they didn't care about casualties or losses.

"They're coming again!!!" The defenders, who had only rested for a few minutes, had to climb back up the wall, gripping their weapons soaked in sweat and blood, preparing for another fierce attack.

"Thud!" The limp body of the writhing demon slammed against the wall. Before it could get up, a giant sword pierced through its center, and seven or eight more writhing demons poured in through the gap, rushing wildly along the connecting passage between the sewers and the maze.

Leslie released the bowstring, and the arrow made of rock fragments blasted the limbs of a writh into pieces. The limbless writh tumbled several times due to inertia, tripping its companions behind it to the ground.

With a sharp "whoosh!", Roach's portable magic crossbow fired a wind bullet that shattered the second writh. At that moment, the witch finally completed her communication with the labyrinth floor. Soil and rocks rose up, like rolling waves that swept the wriths one by one into them. A few seconds later, only a flat area remained, with all the wriths crushed into the rocks and soil.

The little witch, who poses no threat at close range, is the most powerful mobile turret Roach has ever seen, but only if no enemies get close to her. Otherwise, you'll only see a golden fur ball crouching on the ground, trembling with its head in its hands.

"The concentration of hellish magic has increased..." Livia blinked her large, emerald eyes, gazing at something far more distant than the material world, "The boundary is being drawn closer..."

Hell is layered, with each layer connected to the next by some metaphysical concept. It is not a unified space, but rather like two different pieces of garbage in a chaotic garbage dump.

This also means that the "distance" between different realms of hell and the present world is not fixed, but will approach or move away according to a certain cycle and change.

It is more difficult for realms that are relatively far apart to interfere with reality, while it is easier for realms that are closer. When two realms are completely joined together, that is when it is possible to summon and create the Gates of Hell.

Therefore, most of the time, the gruesome rituals performed by those hell warlocks, such as sacrifices, are intended to shorten the distance between the two realms through these rituals, thereby reducing the cost of opening the gates of hell.

“Seeds of Hell…” One by one, the seeds of hell slowly emerged from the ground, lifted by the soil and brought before the little witch. These seeds of hell were constantly releasing a faint hellish magic.

In other words, the other party used the self-enclosed function of the capital city to add a large number of hellish magic nodes within this enclosed area. These hellish magic nodes would naturally make the environment of the capital city begin to resemble the state of a certain layer of hell, thereby bringing them closer together.

Well, saying it's too close isn't quite right. A more accurate term would be similarity. The more similar two spaces are, the closer they are to each other, making it easier to open the gates of hell that connect them.

However, Hellish Magic is just a kind of otherworldly magic. Without hesitation, Roach collected these Hellish Seeds and put them into his alchemy briefcase. The academy has a complete set of tools. He only needs to spend some time to process something like "Otherworldly Magic Essence" and then condense it into Otherworldly Magic Crystals to power various magical constructs.

In a sense, arcane sorcerers are the natural enemies of demons and hell sorcerers. They can produce essence at an incredible speed. Supported by systematic mathematical theories, they do not need to rely on luck like alchemists. They can even calculate precisely how to offset every bit of hellish magic.

Moreover, in the later stages, various secret source formulas and technologies can completely condense these hellish magic powers into harmless otherworldly magic power condensates. Then, it's the turn of hell warlocks to clash with the secret source constructs created by secret source warlocks, especially the tons of demon puppets created by puppet masters who want to create artificial magic hearts.

Otherwise, you'll have to fight a large-scale battle against those hell beasts (artificial monsters with hellish bloodlines modified using hellish magic and bloodline power), which looks like a demon civil war. And you'll probably lose, since if one of your demons dies, that's it. But if one of your demons dies, the other side can create another powerful modified monster.

Even a sorcerer like Roach, who chose the Runemaster branch and doesn't have such powerful anti-demon abilities, can create more otherworldly magic crystals or runestones with enough Hell Essence. It's like he has a huge amount of high-powered ammunition, and this ammunition is powered by the demons you summon.

Simply put, in the eyes of a Hell Warlock, a Mystic Warlock is basically similar to how a necromancer is seen by an ordinary person. They meticulously manage the demons you summon and the magic power you gain from your sacrificial rituals. The more you die, the more combat power the enemy has.

In comparison, they pose a much lower threat to necromancers and necromancers because the existence of "corpse explosion" directly blows up corpses, leaving no magical materials for cryptic sorcerers to process and utilize.

Conversely, Hell Warlocks are effective against Necromancers, since demon corpses cannot be converted into undead creatures. On the contrary, the corpses of undead creatures can be used as summoning materials for demons in the Bone Realm.

"Can you clear or transform the hellish magic here?"

“I can’t collect the scattered magic,” Roach shook his head. “I can only decompose and utilize the materials left behind by the demons after they die using other alchemical rituals and the rune system of arcane sorcerers. I can’t directly utilize the magic in the environment.”

“I can…” Livia said, raising her right hand. She could manipulate these environmental hellish magics. To her, these hellish magics were no different from other magics; they were tamed and clung to her, ready to be transformed into powerful hellish spells at a single command.

However, she couldn't change the increased proportion of hellish magic in the environment. The best way to consume it was to use this hellish magic to summon demons and then cast it back into hell. Although she could guarantee that the summoned demons would never dare to disobey her orders, ...

“Anyway, there’s no one else in this maze, so let’s use it~” the mermaid, who loved to stir things up, encouraged. “If it doesn’t work, we can just banish it back or kill it after we’re done, no problem, right?” She looked at Alessina, who shrugged, indicating that if the other was restrained and unable to resist, she wouldn’t mind cutting down a few more demons.

"Hmm!" Livia looked around cautiously, then stretched out her right hand toward the sewer opening in front of her. Her small mouth opened slightly, and silent incantations flowed out, transforming into countless twisted and chaotic characters under the influence of magic, eventually outlining the shape of an archway.

In the Bloodbath Zone of Hell, a Doomsday Warrior stands on the plain, leaning on his decapitation sword that burns with crimson flames. Dozens of demon overseers restrain their savage nature and bloodlust, quietly waiting below the three-tiered brass platform along with thousands of powerful war demons and demon messengers, awaiting the opening of the true gates of Hell.

The power from the demon god kept these demons, who usually split into countless factions and fought endlessly, in a rare silence, and the incessant sound of war drums on the sea of ​​blood also became much lower.

As the power of Hell increases, all demons can sense that the distance between the mortal realm and Hell is closing. Soon, a gap will open that will allow even the lowest-ranking War Demons and Iron Demons to pass through, followed by larger War Demon leaders and Hell Heralds, and finally, great demons like Demon Overlords and Doomsday Generals.

Just then, a door suddenly opened in front of the Doomsday Warrior. Before he could react, hundreds of ethereal chains, gleaming with ominous golden light, bound his limbs and pulled the great demon through the door, disappearing in a flash. Meanwhile, the demon overseers below were still bewildered as to what had happened. A demon had been kidnapped in broad daylight!

"Roar, insects! How dare you..." The Doomsday Warrior raised his head, which was covered in metal and covered with sharp horns, but after roaring for the first time, he could no longer make a sound, as if his vocal cords and the surrounding air refused to obey his will.

The little witch rubbed her ears, glaring angrily at the demon. With a clench of her little hands, the demon's bones and soul emitted terrifying screams as it was pulled to the ground by illusory chains, lying there like a dog.

Beads of blood seeped from his skin, trembling as if he were enduring some unspeakable torture. When the great demon of the Blood War Domain, known for his willpower and endurance, was about to collapse, this pain, which felt like his soul and bones were being torn apart piece by piece, finally ended. What followed was the malice and rejection of the whole world.

"This demon is a bit too unruly. Should we just cut it down? We're only using up some hellish magic power anyway."

"Hmm~" Livia nodded, and the chains ignited with silver-gray void flames. The terror of her soul being torn apart and burned caused this doomsday warrior to begin to struggle frantically.

"Quiet down..." Alessina nimbly dodged the flames, jumped onto the demon's back, and swung his unparalleled greatsword in a cross motion with the glowing fragment thrown by Roach, causing a huge steel head to roll to the ground.

As the demon died, its body quickly turned into sand and disappeared, leaving behind a piece of hell crystal and rusted, damaged armor and weapons. The only thing that remained intact was the decapitation sword.