Witch Troupe and the Undead

“The mine shaft is old, but these ores… I don’t know much about them.” Roach examined the supporting beams and wooden structure and could confirm that it was indeed an old mine shaft, so the origin of these ores was somewhat suspicious.

The witch examined the rocks and crystals, then shook her head at Roach, meaning she didn't see anything wrong with them either, as if the rocks and minerals had indeed formed naturally.

"The magic content is a bit low..." Livia thought for a moment and said. The magic content around here is a bit low, and theoretically, it shouldn't be able to produce ore of this level.

“Indeed, abyssal crystals require a very strong magical reaction to form... but…” In this low magical environment, minerals that require a high magical overflow to form should not be formed. So, either this place was once covered by magical radiation, which formed these veins, and then the magical energy was absorbed or moved for some reason.

Either this area was once a low-magic zone, and there was a very strong magical eruption in the middle, which led to the formation of these mineral vein structures. Either way, it signifies an absolute anomaly.

“Master, it seems we… have taken the wrong turn.” Ron stood at the crossroads with an uneasy expression on his face. The structure here had completely changed. In his memory, there was only one straight path leading to the fork in the road at the bottom, and then turning right would lead to the mine entrance to the stone gate, an area sealed off with wooden planks and exorcising talismans.

However, the road is now full of forks and intersections, making it incredibly complicated. It's impossible to know where to go. Moreover, some intersections have both downhill and uphill ramps.

"Did we take the wrong turn?" Roach looked at the old mine foreman suspiciously. How could they have taken the wrong turn? Was it on purpose, or was he influenced by some kind of force, or was everyone being affected from this moment on?

Roach looked down at the golden bracelet on his wrist. It was a mind-enhancing bracelet made by a witch, which could greatly improve the stability of the soul and mind, thereby significantly increasing resistance to possible mental pollution and whispers.

"Yes, yes, this place is completely different from the route I remember. We've taken the wrong path, everything is wrong." The mine foreman's expression began to become dazed, which made Roach's scalp tingle. Fortunately, the little witch quickly reached out and pressed her hand on the mine foreman's forehead. A faint halo flashed, and his expression became much calmer than before.

“Something’s approaching, and there are quite a few of them.” Leon drew his sword. All Alessina had at the moment were two swords that the witch had temporarily made. They were weapons transformed from two iron ingots and had no enchantments or special abilities; they were just two ordinary steel swords.

Indistinct whispers came from inside the passage, then a miner on all fours lunged out. "Thud!" The blade easily tore through the human body, scattering messy pieces all over the ground. Then Alessina added a kick, sending the body, which was crawling on its hands and feet and trying to rush up, flying even further. Its head slammed against the stone wall with a thud, splattering juices everywhere.

"Ugh~" Livia decisively covered her head and squatted down. At this distance and in this environment, it was difficult for her to cast spells.

"Young lady, cast a glowing spell!" Roach grabbed the little witch by the shoulder and lifted her up. Her emerald eyes stared at Roach in a daze, and it took her a while to refocus. "A glowing spell, any spell will do!"

When Leon found that his two-handed sword was not easy to use, he stuck it into the ground and started attacking with his fists and feet. Each blow turned a puppet miner into a corpse. However, even after being beaten into a corpse, these miners could still move. Even the hand that Alessina had cut off was crawling and moving.

The only way to completely solve this problem is to smash it into a pulp or burn it to ashes. However, it's difficult to burn it to ashes underground, and if it's smashed into pulp, the pulp will still be wriggling and might regenerate together.

Even though it wouldn't regenerate, and it would take smashing it into mud to stop its movement, it made the fight between Leon and Alessina extremely difficult. Leon even muttered that he should have brought a big iron hammer with him.

"Leon, do you have any glowing magic?"

"Glowing? Yes!" Leon tried to summon the Holy Flame, but the flame that had just started burning was extinguished by the miners' attacks. Even though it was sizzling under the Holy Flame, it did not react at all, as if it were just an inanimate object. The little bit of light from the Holy Flame only made the miners more frantic.

"A glowing spell, as long as it can glow!" Roach continued to shake the little witch's shoulders. It took her a while to finally come to her senses. She clasped her hands together, and a faint light bloomed at her fingertips, then spread in all directions. The entire mine was instantly enveloped in midday light. The next second, the miners, who had been so aggressive, scattered and fled, as if the light itself had caused them some kind of great damage.

"Master Roach, how did you know that the light-emitting spell was useful?"

"Ah, what I mean is, these guys live in a dark environment and have shown sensitivity to light. The more sensitive they are to light, the more violently they react to strong light." His original intention was to blind these monsters, but he didn't expect that these things were so afraid of light that they even ran away decisively after encountering light.

"It can be confirmed that the beings operating these miners are definitely of the dark attribute, otherwise they wouldn't have such a strong aversion to light." "And they don't have any evil characteristics." Leon shook his hand, and his fist, which was imbued with the holy fire, had no special effect when it hit them. In other words, the holy fire had no restraining effect on these things, meaning they didn't have the characteristics of demons or evil spirits.

"There doesn't seem to be any trace of sin..." Lulua used Moon Wrap Mode to hammer those zombie-like miners several times. If they were evil creatures created by some kind of evil force, they should be unable to move.

“Darkness, not evil, not sin…” Roach’s expression turned strange. “Lulua, think about it carefully. Does that lonely old god have any other familiars, or did she kick someone who was sharing a position with her off before?” This characteristic sounds like the tone of the Night God, but the Night God doesn’t have this kind of whispering style.

"More like the style of the God of Dreams, the favored one." The God of Dreams has a divine office of prophecy, which means that nameless whispers often represent revelations about the future or similar meanings, just like mysterious dreams.

"Try contacting her?" Roach offered a suggestion that Leon couldn't understand. What did he mean by "try contacting her"? Was the goddess your neighbor? Did he think he was asking for directions? Unexpectedly, Lulua actually nodded, thinking that asking the goddess was the right thing to do. So now, Leon was one of the few who felt that this world was too crazy to understand.

Chapter 385 I'm a Farmer

Livia held up a bright orb of light, which illuminated the surrounding cold, rugged ore and rocks. "Hiss~" Leon looked around and at the elevator, and gasped. Before, this place was a rocky area where miners had mined out all the valuable ores, but now, it looked as if it had been squeezed out of the rocks and was covered with shiny ores.

Interspersed among the hard, bluish-gray silver ore are small amounts of white salt ore, and between the large chunks of rock salt are small pieces of gold-bearing stone. This unique local gold ore reflects the luster of wealth under the light, like some kind of bait.

The elevator creaked and groaned as it ascended. The terrified mine foreman's expression softened slightly. When the elevator reached the top, Roach thought for a moment, then took out a metal test tube from his bag. Only at the bottom of the test tube were there faint traces of milky-white crystals. Roach gave the little witch a look, and an invisible force solidified the atmosphere. Roach carefully placed the test tube on it, and the group frantically ran out.

He was testing the effectiveness of the art sealing technique. Under the bewildered look of the mine foreman, Leon picked him up and rushed outside. There were no miners left in the shallow area now, since the inhuman screams from the battle below had been heard by all the miners.

"Boom!" The entire mine shook violently, and a large amount of ore fragments were ejected from the elevator area. The entire mountain could not calm down for a long time and was still in a state of violent shaking. The rocks writhed like flesh and blood, swallowing the broken stones, broken supporting wood and the broken ore together.

"It seems to be having some effect?" At least the little witch heard faint screams coming from below. The monster seemed to have been genuinely injured, though she wasn't sure how severe the injury was.

A few minutes later, at the town hall. The shaken mine foreman left tremblingly with the bounty, leaving only a tense mayor and Roach staring at each other. "My suggestion is..." Roach hesitated for a moment, then decided to tell the truth, "Let's just blow it up."

"What do you mean by 'exploded'?" The mayor was a little confused. He knew a bit about alchemical bombs, but if they were useful, things wouldn't be like this down below.

"We'll use some kind of tool to collapse and seal off the entire mine, at least to prevent this anomaly from spreading to the outside world," Roach said sincerely. The situation down in the mine was clearly not optimistic; something that had spread out had already taken control of the entire lower area.

"Um, is there any other way?" After being speechless for a long time, the mayor asked in a low voice. The entire town of Gray Hill was formed based on mining and metal smelting. If you blow up the last mine, how will they live? It's better to continue as it is now!

If all else fails, we could even consider absorbing some refugees and criminals and throwing them down to work as miners. Anyway, even if some danger spreads and it becomes a crisis that wipes out the town, blowing up the mine now would still be a crisis that wipes out the town. If we're going to die anyway, at least we'd die more knowing why, right?

"Oh, the alternative is to go all out and blast half the mountain open, turning the mine into a pit. Whatever that thing's situation, its current characteristic is that it's afraid of light. Maybe after blasting it into a pit, we can continue mining using sunlight!"

It has to be said that the mayor was seriously tempted. Even from the perspective of the mining industry itself, open-pit mines have higher output and lower mining costs than underground mines. However... the mayor looked towards the direction of the mine, which was at least a hundred meters away from the mountaintop. In other words... he had worked in mining before, so estimating the amount of earthwork was not a particularly difficult task. Therefore, after estimating how much force would be needed to blast away this entire section of the mountain, he decisively and firmly shook his head.

"Master Roach, is there any other way?"

"Not at the moment. After all, we don't even know what the thing below is, and we don't have much time to waste here. Blowing up the entire mountain is the best solution." It would also be a good opportunity to test the potential and maximum power of Roach's new energy material.

“But…” the mayor hesitated, then slowly shook his head. “Master, we should think of another way. As for the reward…”

"Oh, we have a new idea, so the original one can be disregarded." The abyssal crystals were identified as normal minerals by Livia, so we can take some miniature new energy materials down and mine them directly by blasting. Anyway, Roach and the others don't need much.

Pig iron ingots are expensive, but we can buy them in Silver Maple City. Dark copper and red copper can be extracted directly from abyssal crystals. Besides, when we come out, we'll already have golden speckled stones, so we can also extract some gold to solve our funding problems.

Star Silver is a bit more troublesome, but if you have a large quantity of Dark Copper, you can directly barter for the Star Silver you need at the Silver Maple City trading post. The same goes for Black Iron. Below, Roach, using Livia's light sphere, saw many dark rocks; those were Black Iron ore. Having the ore, there's no difference between smelting five pieces of Black Iron himself.

"Master Roach... about your new alchemical bomb, is it... expensive?" After hearing Roach's new version of the plan, the mayor suddenly had a unique idea. Since Master Roach's bomb could damage the things below, and it sounded like it could shatter those ores, then perhaps...

"What I mean is, since the impact below is temporary, could we use a batch of your tools to consume those mineral veins in a short time?" No matter how much damage this would cause below, at least the ore would actually be mined, and it would only take the time to go down and place a bomb. Many miners would be willing to do it.

Then the ore that was blasted out was immediately transported out via the elevator. After the entire area below was dug up by brute force, there was no point in blasting the abandoned mine, right? Moreover, mining such a large batch of ore in a short time and storing it would be enough to sustain the town for a long time.

Now it all comes down to whether Master Roach's so-called "new energy material" prop truly possesses this ability. "Hmm, this kind of thing is very dangerous; non-professionals should avoid handling it."

Even someone with the explosives mastery talent, who can visually determine the blast radius and yield contours, would be destroyed. If these miners were taken down with them, it wouldn't be much different from carrying out the mountain-opening plan.

"Is it possible, Master?" The mayor ignored the word "danger." Even if your explosive props are dangerous, can they be as dangerous as the bizarre scene below? Even if they are dangerous, can they be more dangerous than blowing up half a hill?

"...Hmm~" Having said that, Luo Qi had nothing more to say. "As for the price, it's not expensive, since it doesn't use any rare materials." Most of the materials were dug up from the fields and roadsides. If he mobilized the idle people in town to go out and dig, Luo Qi could probably make enough to blow up the whole town in two weeks at most.

"However, it's really very dangerous, and I can't provide much in a short time."

"Oh, no need, no need, just a little bit is enough." The mayor knew a bit about the danger. If a master with the Royal Alchemist's Badge tells you it's extremely dangerous, then by ordinary standards, it's definitely something more dangerous than the Demon King of Hell.

“Alright, if you insist…” Roach didn’t refuse, as it would be a good opportunity to test his new passivation schemes.

As night fell, the town's lights dimmed considerably, and the sky was shrouded in smoke, obscuring even a single star. It was not a good time for prayer.

However, Lulua still set up the altar and used the divine body as a medium to contact her goddess. As a believer of another sect, the paladin Leon wisely avoided the scene and practiced swordsmanship outside the greenhouse. The new weapon felt very unfamiliar and awkward to him, and because there were no materials, the witch did not enchant it.

It's just a weapon made of special material that can deal high special attack damage to hellish creatures. And because it's not enchanted, this high special attack damage is relative to ordinary cold iron and sun steel weapons. It won't cause a scene where a single strike makes a great demon scream in pain.

Deep purple incense smoke swirled around the black-haired girl, and silver scriptures on the low-hanging curtains slowly lit up and went out, completing a brief and quick oracle ritual.

The oracle ritual is the most demanding test of a clergyman's ability to attract attention. The more conspicuous you are in the eyes of the gods, the easier it is to attract their attention, and the faster the oracle ritual will be performed. Typically, a standard clergyman needs to perform the ritual for 2 to 3 days to gather the power of faith to form a bright enough beacon to attract the attention of the gods.

However, Lulua's ritual went very smoothly. After completing the basic procedures, the goddess issued a divine decree, the content of which was very simple. "Just two words: No." Lulua scratched her head. "The goddess's answer was: No."

"How did you ask?"

"Ah, I just inquired about the monster's true nature and whether it was related to the Goddess of Dreams, but the goddess's answer was: no."

"No answer regarding the monster's true form? Does that mean even the goddess doesn't know what it is?"

"Emmmm," Lulua hesitated, "Should I ask again?" The ritual received no further response until almost late at night, when a single sentence was finally given: "For the calamity of the earth, seek Chang Tiya."

"..."

"..."

"Do we have anyone who knows a priest or clergy member of the Earth Goddess, I mean someone who can perform oracle rituals?" Ordinary priests of the Earth Goddess Church probably wouldn't recognize what that is either, and would likely have to either contact higher-ups in the church or ask the Earth Goddess herself. Since those who can successfully perform oracle rituals are mostly high-ranking members of the church, these two questions can be combined into one.

Obviously not. Livia went back to her room to rest early and agreed to check the books again the next day. Since there was a clue like "Earth's Calamity," they could specifically search through the old witch's collection of books, and maybe there would be some recorded content inside.

The academy's library is definitely empty, but the old witch has wild ways of dealing with things, so she might have some. However, if she does find something... it's best to stay away from the Church of Earth in the future. Given Nierriel's methods of getting magic books, and the fact that the Earth Goddess is the only deity who has ever issued divine punishment, everyone thinks it's better not to go and provoke her.

As night falls, below the mine, the rocks writhe and pulsate, twisting like flesh and blood. The mine tunnels are like blood vessels, and the rocks exhibit muscle-like textures. Countless minerals move little by little in these writhing passages, sometimes swallowed into the rock layers, sometimes rolled to the surface, endlessly.

The bodies of those heartless miners were stained with the color of rock, and even covered with a metallic sheen, like statues frozen in place, only occasionally emitting more broken and indistinct sounds from their abdominal cavities.

The next day, noon.

Inside the cabin's dining room, a group of people watched as Livia buried herself in a pile of ancient books. These books were dangerous notes left behind by the old witch, which even the little witch rarely read. Not only were they difficult to understand, but from the little girl's aesthetic point of view, the notes and the contents of these ancient books were too bizarre and ugly.

"Hmm, this..." After flipping through books for almost a whole day, he finally found some relevant information in a very suspicious book that had chains and earth runes on the surface. It took Leon a while to barely ignore the "extremely dangerous" warning mark on the title page of this ancient book that was about to fall apart, as well as the Earth Church's censorship and classification standards: the emblem of "forbidden book".

"The Calamity of the Earth, the Ancient Titan, the Ancestor of Giants, the Ancient Calamity..." Livia read the words calmly. The words writhed on the surface, as if trying to break free from the constraints of the paper, or as if trying to recombine into more distorted and indescribable words. However, in the end, they only changed their form in place, switching back and forth between various languages, without showing any further anomalies.

"That's all. The following is a prayer to this 'Titan God'" seems to be some kind of ancient heretical document, recording the awe and worship of a being called "Titan Giants," who is described as the ancient calamity of the earth, the oldest Titan God, the progenitor of giants, a god who represents both endless calamities and endless wealth.

“Rock is His flesh and blood, metal is His nerves, and in that ancient, deep, dark mountain, the bloodline of the ancient father breathes.”

"The mountains tremble, the kingdoms of kings will fall, and the slumbering father will awaken among the stars."

"The prayers that followed were all the same." Livia shook her head. There was no more valuable information. The only information she had was that the clues given by the goddess were correct. Judging from the situation in the mine tunnels below, it seemed that the rocks were flesh and blood and the metal was nerves.

“However… such an ancient giant being starving and howling at the foot of a small hill… I don’t think that matches the prayer,” Leslie said. “Could there be a mistake?”

"No, it's normal that they don't match. Most of the things that cultists worship are like that. In reality, most of them are no match for the true god, and they don't even have any real divine power." Leon said that it was normal that they didn't match. If they really matched, then they wouldn't be cultists, but the true god.

Even those fierce and evil gods are true gods, not evil gods or evil creatures; there is a fundamental difference between the two.

"Perhaps the long hibernation or imprisonment made it too weak. Another possibility is that the calamity of the earth mentioned here refers to the complete form, while the one below is an juvenile, which is why it is crying out from hunger."

“That’s possible,” Leon, a professional paladin who hunts demons and blasphemous creatures, affirmed Roach’s statement. Many so-called evil creatures are like this, making a lot of noise, but when they get hit in the face by the Holy Flame Slash, they realize that the Holy Lord is still the most powerful.

"However, even a nascent evil entity... is not easy to deal with." The little witch's power is actually not very suitable for this kind of thing. Her power is more inclined towards creation, and her destructive ability focuses more on tearing souls and learning arcane spells. Her ability can directly manipulate real objects and magical power, but it is very ineffective against evil entities whose true nature is unknown.

"However, the previous explosion confirms that my props are effective."

"Um... Master Roach, it's best not to use that thing." Leon's heart was trembling, fearing that if Roach poured even a little more down, it would crush everyone below.

"By the way, does Old Ma know about this?" Alessina asked about the Calamity of the Earth. Did Old Ma know about it or not? The answer was naturally: no.

"Me? I'm quite famous among demons~" Old Ma said seriously, picking his teeth. "You actually asked me such a question? That's quite unexpected."

"You know?" Livia raised her staff, tilted her head, and stared at Old Ma with her emerald eyes. The latter immediately sat up straight. "Um, I don't know."

"Didn't you say you were quite famous among demons?" Leon narrowed his eyes. "I thought you knew that~"

"Of course, I'm a well-known... illiterate among demons!" Old Ma said with a completely unashamed expression. Of course, "illiterate among demons" was relative, not referring to true illiteracy; it was more of a self-deprecating remark. But it also indirectly demonstrated Old Ma's level of understanding of this kind of esoteric and mysterious knowledge.

"..." Livia thought for a moment, then said to Old Ma, "Read a book."

"Why would an old man like me read books? Besides, have you ever seen a horse that can read?" Livia seemed to have been asked a question, then thought for a moment and realized that she really had never heard of a horse that could read, so she let the old horse go and looked at the bull.

"I'm a farmer," Niu Tou pointed to the farm tools next to him, looking very honest. This explanation fooled the little witch. The little girl nodded. Indeed, it's normal for a farmer not to know anything about farming.

Both demons claimed ignorance, but they might also know a little bit and be afraid of getting involved. In any case, the trail ends here. The only certainty is that the things in the mine might be related to things like "Titans" and "Giants".

Chapter 386 Quack! It's shit! (Dwarf's language)

Although no detailed information about this "calamity of the earth" was found, it can at least be confirmed that it is neither a natural phenomenon nor caused by any ordinary monster, which means that the problem in this town is not ordinary.

Leon's suggestion was to try to report this to the church, especially the Church of the Earth Goddess, and then everyone could continue on their way, or wait for the professionals from the Church of the Earth Goddess to arrive before making any further plans.

“This is clearly not a problem we can solve on our own.” As an experienced person, Leon was not the type to shout slogans and be stubborn. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have followed Roach and the others. In fact, when dealing with various evil things and evil spirits, the worst thing is to be too confident and charge in on your own. Most exorcists die because of this.

Honestly calling for reinforcements and reporting them when necessary is the biggest way to survive. Even if reinforcements can't arrive immediately, and the crisis can't wait, this approach can at least ensure that when you go in and things go wrong, there's still some hope and something to look forward to. Maybe at a critical moment, reinforcements will jump out.

However, if you don't report anything, you'll only be left to wait until things get really bad, and then your descendants will have to collect your corpse.

"So, reporting to the church and waiting for the Earth Goddess's people to handle it is the best course of action. Besides, I think you all aren't in a hurry, are you?" Going directly to Silver Maple City without Gray Hill is also fine. It all depends on the Little Witch's decision: whether to stay and wait for reinforcements or to set off directly.

"There's plenty of time, but the environment here... the young lady doesn't really like it." The gloomy gray hills made the little witch very uncomfortable.

“Then setting off directly is also an option. As for the materials, we’ll have to think of other solutions, or we can buy them all the way to Silver Valley City.” Leon shrugged. After all, Roach and his group were short on funds; otherwise, they could have bought all the materials in any major city. 300 gold coins were more than enough for the travel expenses of less than 10 people, but anything related to magic wouldn’t be cheap.

"Let's discuss the specifics tomorrow. Whatever we choose, it's best to rest today," Roach said, glancing at the somewhat drowsy little witch. The strongest fighter here was the weakest, so ensuring Livia's mental and physical condition was crucial. Roach also needed to prepare a small amount of "new energy materials," which would be necessary if they chose to blow up the mine.

“That makes sense… Even if we’re leaving, Miss needs to have the energy to move the cabin and maintain its protective barrier.” Simply moving the cabin doesn’t require Livia to do it herself.

However, maintaining this concealment barrier and other functions requires it, and if Livia doesn't operate it, it will consume the cabin's own magic pool. The stored amount was not much left after the long journey from the previous docking place to the capital, and it has not been fully restored yet.

The most crucial point is that even if there is still enough magic, this house only obeys Livia's commands; no one else can make it move.

"Hmm~" The little witch gave everyone a soft smile, then collapsed onto the table with a thud, exhausted. In the end, Alessina had to carry her back to her room to rest.

"This young lady's physical training should be arranged."

“She’s been training for a while, but her endurance is too low. She faints if she does even a little bit of strenuous exercise. It’s not just a matter of physical strength,” Roach said.

If it were simply a matter of physical strength, even the worst training should have yielded noticeable results. However, the little witch's physical abilities have only improved slightly since the beginning. At least she can walk on her own or maintain spellcasting for a relatively long time.

This suggests that there are supernatural phenomena or factors that Roach cannot understand that are affecting the benefits of the witch's physical training.

"Perhaps it's the burden caused by her special magical manipulation ability?" That's possible. Powerful magic naturally requires a powerful material structure to support it, but witches don't have a powerful material structure, so naturally this magic will cause a severe burden. In this world, the scientific name for overload is "magicification".