Witch Troupe and the Undead

Magic refers to the permanent damage and structural changes that magic causes to the structure of material things. Humans are naturally also beings that can be "magically transformed." However, humans, or intelligent beings, consciously consume and utilize magic through special extraordinary training and techniques, so the probability of being "magically transformed" is very low, and the amount of magic power required is also very large.

Although enchanting is the main way to create magical materials and supernatural substances, in terms of physical structural strength alone, enchanting does not mean that it will enhance physical strength. A more obvious example is the metal cold iron, which is softer than normal steel. Therefore, cold iron weapons are mostly forged together with steel cores.

Others sacrifice physical strength for magical strength, possessing extremely high magic resistance. Dark Copper is another example; its physical strength is very low, even less than that of copper ore, and it feels as soft as pure gold, but it has extremely high magic resistance.

Based on such examples, Roach's hypothesis that witches' physical abilities might be affected by magical load, leading to deterioration, is indeed plausible.

"Perhaps..." Leon shook his head. Since today was for rest and preparation, he needed to familiarize himself with the reforged wolf-headed longsword. As for Alessina, he would continue his rehabilitation, familiarizing himself with the swordsmanship and footwork of the two swords.

Late at night. Town hall.

"Sigh~" The mayor's expression twisted into a grimace as he stared at the letter in front of him. This was the fourth letter sent to the lord seeking help. Even an alchemy master and a gold-level witch couldn't handle this, so he figured the reinforcements coming from the other side probably wouldn't be able to either.

Of course, it's hard to say whether this is truly unsolvable or whether these two masters are simply unwilling to invest too much effort for such a meager reward. However, at the very least, the seriousness of the matter should be made clear, otherwise, it would be difficult to bear if the lord pursued the matter.

The dim light of the oil lamp illuminated the letter paper, the black notes twisting and turning like dying worms. The withered trees outside the window cast strange silhouettes on the French windows. The mayor folded the letter, put it in an envelope, stamped it, and was about to call his attendant outside the door when a strange feeling of unease welled up inside him.

"Who's there!" There was no one outside the window or door, only a startled servant ran over with a blank look on his face, still showing signs of drowsiness.

"Perhaps it's just my imagination?" It felt like something or someone was spying on us from the very beginning. "This letter, have the fastest messenger deliver it to the lord first thing tomorrow morning, don't delay."

"Yes, Master," the servant bowed as he took the letter, and it seemed as if fine powder fell from his clothes onto his body.

"The weather is terrible today, I'd better go to bed early." The strong wind outside the window blew the branches, creating countless twisted and strange shadows on the window, like bizarre tentacles twisting and dancing wildly.

In the mine, two guards dozed off in a sheltered corner. An oil lamp hanging from a T-shaped wooden frame swayed back and forth in the wind, making a creaking noise.

"Watch the mine for a bit, I'm going to relieve myself," the guard said, yawning as he placed his short spear beside his companion and walked towards a hillside a short distance from the mine. There was a large rock there, a good place to relieve himself. In fact, because of the abundant water and fertilizer, waist-high reeds had even grown there.

Looking down from here, the miners' sheds on the hillside are dark and gloomy, with only a few lights occasionally appearing—the lanterns used by miners to get up at night.

"Splash!" The water rushed between the rocks. The guard quickly shook his trousers and hurried to his post. If the captain of the guard found him slacking off while on duty, he would be in trouble.

"Huh?" The row of mine entrances in front of him looked exactly the same, which made him a little confused for a moment. He even began to wonder if he had drunk too much ale, but he remembered that he hadn't drunk any alcohol. Even if he had, he shouldn't be unable to tell how many entrances there were, right?

Just as the guard was wondering what was going on, the rock beneath his feet suddenly became incredibly flexible, almost like a living thing. Almost the instant he instinctively jumped back, the rock rippled like water, engulfing him completely.

A few minutes later, a human body covered in bluish-gray rocks emerged, mechanically walked to one of the cave entrances, stood in its original position, and even had a short gun made of stone in its hand.

Each of these cave entrances had two identical blue stone guards, who gradually merged with each other over time, until only the original mine entrance and two dark blue stone guards remained, with traces of flesh and blood still faintly visible among the rocks.

In the town hall, the mayor suddenly awoke from his sleep. The room was pitch black, with no moonlight, only the faint glow of a small candle that had been placed in the lamp before he went to bed. In the dim candlelight, the familiar furniture even had a ghostly feel to it. Then, he decisively got up and pulled a decorative short sword from the wall.

Before becoming the mayor of Greyhill, he was a warrior under a baron. However, since the old baron's death, the current Baron Conrad of the Whitebeard has become a completely different person, and he has gradually become obese due to the long-term tedious daily affairs and the life of luxury.

Besides the short sword, the mayor also held a wooden decorative shield that had originally been placed on the fireplace. The former was not sharpened, and the latter was just a simple combination of pine wood and lacquered leather. However, compared to the thin silk pajamas he was wearing, these two weapons could at least give him a little sense of security.

"Firestone! Firestone!!" the mayor shouted his servant's name, but there was no sound outside except for the wind. Normally, he wouldn't have felt anything unusual, since the lazy and slacking off of the guy he hired from his hometown was an open secret in town.

For many clerks in Huigang, if they don't hear the mayor scolding his servants in the morning, they have the illusion that it's a day off. For the mayor, this is the only remaining link between him and his hometown. Even though the servant is lazy, loves to sleep in, and is not very reliable, he still doesn't fire him.

This beating and scolding had almost become a daily routine for him. Sometimes he would have the illusion that the other party was doing it on purpose, trying to rouse himself from his morning fatigue by provoking him. However, over time, he got used to it—it was just simple naivety and foolishness.

"Squeak~" The door to the room was gently pushed open, and the corridor was quiet. This was the third floor of the town hall, which was also his home. The mayors or territorial guardians of other towns would definitely have their own residences and would rarely live in the town hall, but Gray Hill's situation was a bit special.

The town hall itself was converted from an abandoned rock outpost. Before the iron ore was discovered, this place was just an unremarkable hill connecting the main road and Silver Maple City. Like most of the empire's territory, small castles or outposts were built on the hill, which were like countless nails stuck in the empire's land.

Any foreign invader would need to eliminate these outposts one by one in order to literally occupy the entire territory.

After the iron ore was discovered, this place became the earliest settlement, and then gradually developed into the center of the town. After the town had fully developed around the old mine pit, it became the town hall.

To put it bluntly, this is the most fortified defensive building in the whole town, but conversely, it also means that the area is not very large. The entire third floor has only four rooms, a corridor, and a staircase on the side of the corridor.

One room served as his bedroom and study, another as a dining room, a storage room, and a servants' quarters and kitchen. The first and second floors were both office areas. The scribes worked on the first floor, while the mayor's office, reception room, and archives were on the second floor. Thanks to the empire's unified government and cheap artificial parchment, at least this world, on the empire's side, still had basic land surveys, censuses, and tax records. It wasn't to the point of calling land and census records "doomsday books."

In such a confined space, the mayor quickly arrived at the servants' quarters. After listening for a moment, he kicked the door open. The enormous impact made it impossible for any living being to continue sleeping soundly, but the thing lying on the bed could no longer be called a "living being".

"By Mother Earth..." The mayor stared in disbelief as countless crystals and stones grew from between his flesh and blood. His face, squeezed and deformed by the stones, struggled to utter indistinct words, as if a living person was being gradually swallowed up by stones that emerged from within his body.

"Petrification..." This was the second time he had encountered petrification. The first time was when he was young, as an adventurer, when he encountered a "petrified giant lizard".

The real petrification effect is not that the whole person turns into stone and then is unharmed afterward. In reality, petrification is when the body's organs and flesh are gradually turned into stone by earth elements. The flesh sticks between the lifeless stones, and the stones continue to grow, squeezing out the remaining flesh and stacking up layer by layer, just like now.

A living person was gradually swallowed up, squeezed, and crushed by stones. Broken bones hung between the sharp stones. On the distorted face, the eyeballs swelled up due to the enormous pressure and were eventually squeezed out of their sockets.

Generally speaking, complete petrification means there's absolutely no hope. The chances of survival depend on the degree of petrification. Well, just survive. As for disability? Unless a potion or spell is used to remove the petrification at the very beginning, disability is almost an inevitable consequence.

The mayor took several steps back. The petrification curse was contagious, so he decisively left the room and ran downstairs. There were still two guards in the guardhouse on the first floor. He hoped they were still awake and at least hadn't been petrified.

In the darkness, there was a rustling sound as some kind of crawling creature rubbed against the ground. These sounds spread from all directions around the town and approached the witch's hut.

"Huh!?" Black Horse was the first to open his eyes. "Holy crap! How long have I been asleep!?" As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a distorted and broken face in front of him, with flesh and stone fused together in an extremely brutal way.

"Rock Skeleton!" The Minotaur slammed his fist into a so-called rock skeleton, producing a muffled thud. But even with the power of a hellish demon, the impact only sent stone dust flying. Strictly speaking, the rock skeleton was an elemental creature, an elemental product of human or animal flesh being completely eroded by earth elements. In essence, it was a kind of "dead thing".

Old Ma's punches are fine, but if it's someone like Minotaur, the hellfire is no different from burning stone. It's not that it's completely harmless, but to cause a fatal wound, the whole thing would have to be burned into lava.

"Clang!" A fierce battle also broke out at the entrance of the cabin. Paladin Leon, who was sleeping on the floor of the first-floor hall, fought with two rock skeletons that broke into the cabin until the little witch was awakened.

The earth elemental magic that filled the rock skeletons instantly stagnated, turning these skeletons into statues frozen in place. As the little witch violently extracted the earth element and the few remaining fragments of soul, the rock skeletons turned into scattered stones, rotting flesh and blood, and soil that had lost its magical enhancement. Well, in terms of zero drops, it was just like most elemental creatures.

Rock skeletons possess high magic and physical resistance. As earth elemental creatures, they have astonishing and tireless regeneration abilities as long as they are on the ground. They have no attribute weaknesses, are immune to special attacks, and have zero drop rate. They are a terrifying existence that makes everyone from high-level mages to adventurers tremble at the mere mention of their name.

“Rock skeletons…” Livia yawned slightly, reaching out her small hand to fiddle with the fragments on the ground. “Hmm, rock skeletons, annoying things…” As for the high-density earth element in her hand, that was easy to deal with. She casually squeezed it a couple of times and threw it onto the ground of the hut. It was quickly swallowed up by the activated hut, the soil churned up, and the rock platform expanded slightly outward by a few millimeters.

"It seems something's happened in town..." Leon didn't need to offer his hindsight advice, because more and more people were alerted, and now the town, especially the old mine, was filled with the sounds of fierce fighting. Those who were conscious and had not been corrupted by earth elemental magic were all running towards the relatively safe large mine, and the mine's unique structure had turned it into a natural refuge and stronghold.

"Damn it, Rock Skeleton!" Bartes Rusthu exclaimed in agreement. For dwarves, encountering Rock Skeleton was as terrifying as encountering a goblin made of dung—it might not be a threat, since Rock Skeleton doesn't have any special abilities, except for spreading a petrifying curse that is almost ineffective against dwarves, and it's just a simple and not very strong physical attack. But it's definitely disgusting enough!

Especially those disgusting dwarves! — They're elemental creatures that will devour your metal ingots and leave you with nothing! They'll turn your ale into mud, your barley into stone, and even your apples into a dull, worthless stone ball!

Chapter 387 There's nothing scary anymore~

The old mine pit, with its tunnels and caves at the bottom, was used to house the injured and cursed inhabitants. About twenty people were suffering from varying degrees of petrification curse, their flesh twisted and distorted by the accumulated rocks, mostly at the extremities.

The town's only herbalist, sweating profusely, poured a mixture of "tar grass" and "fuzzless long-leaved plantain" into each cursed person. This was a folk remedy that could greatly reduce the spread of the curse, but it could not cure it.

Therefore, the cave, which served as a temporary medical facility, remained a hellish scene of wailing and endless bloodshed. Cursed unfortunate souls rolled on the ground, clutching their arms or legs, howling in pain, with blood flowing down the surface covered with rocks and crystals, interspersed with twisted and deformed flesh.

Herbalist Ryan had to repeatedly run between patients, stopping their bleeding and applying pain-relieving ointments. However, even though Greyhill Town was a mining town with a high demand for herbal remedies for external injuries, at this time, various herbs were unusually scarce and in short supply.

"They're charging again!" On the slope leading to the upper part of the mine, several rock skeletons slowly approached the roadblock made of wood and scrap metal. Judging from their attire, they seemed to be town guards. Their bodies were completely covered by rocks, with only a few fleshy structures squeezed out from between the rocks by the bulging stones, flowing down their bluish-gray bodies.

These rock monsters walked slowly and unsteadily, holding short guns made of the same sharp stones. They were corpses and living people severely corrupted and demonized by earth elements. Behind these rock monsters were more pseudo-rock monsters, earth elemental creatures that could mimic humans or some other kind of creature.

Compared to pure black rock skeletons, the core of these pseudo-rock monsters is a series of rock hearts, which often contain different types of metal or gem crystals. These magical metals and gems are their power core.

This is a pure earth elemental creature, or rather, the scientific name for "earth element"; similarly, the scientific names for water elemental creatures, wind elemental creatures, and fire elemental creatures are respectively "water-type mud monsters," "void creatures," and "molten fire mimics." Their characteristics are the same as those of rock monsters; they are all elemental entities controlled by a core containing magical materials, mimicking the form of humans or some other creature.

"Release the arrows!" One after another, heavy steel crossbow bolts struck the rock skeleton's body. Only a very few metal arrowheads pierced through the incredibly hard rock surface and penetrated the inner layer; most of them merely sparked a burst of fire on the outside.

Gray Hill Town has no shortage of excellent equipment. Such places, rich in minerals, especially iron ore, are often key targets for war and plunder. They stockpile a large number of heavy steel crossbows and corresponding armor-piercing crossbow bolts. Even heavily armored knights would find it difficult to gain any advantage.

However, the surfaces of these rock skeletons are all jagged, dark blue-black hard rock. Even if an armor-piercing arrow penetrates the rock, it will only cause minor damage to the inner rock and a small amount of flesh.

Not to mention that these hard, smooth stones with their uneven, sloping surfaces are difficult for armor-piercing arrows to penetrate; they mostly just glide across the surface, leaving a mark that would be fatal to armor and humans, but is merely decoration to the rock skeleton.

"Fire arrows! Keep firing arrows!" The arrows had almost no killing power, but at least they had impact. The rock skeleton, with several crossbow bolts stuck in its body, approached the roadblock. It sluggishly swung its arms and smashed the stone pistols against the temporary roadblock, sending wood chips flying. Several militiamen gripped long-handled stonemason hammers and smashed them against the rock skeleton outside, sending rock fragments flying.

Blunt weapon attacks are an effective way to deal with creatures other than those made of wind and fire, and the same applies to rock creatures. However, regardless of the type of elemental creature, this type of attack will pose a considerable danger to the attacker.

The flying rock fragments are all petrified, while the splashed liquid from water elementals is corrosive and toxic. Fire and wind elementals are already immune to blunt force, and they will use bursts of flame and wind blades to let attackers experience what "counterattack damage" is.

After being hit by the hammer several times, the head of the rock skeleton at the front was finally completely deformed and cracked. However, the rock skeleton with only half of its body left was still smashing the roadblock. By the time "Rusty Beard" Barthes drove away the troublesome militiamen and rushed out, many people had already started to develop bluish-black granules on their skin.

After the dwarves took over, these people promptly ran down and frantically drank herbal juice, then used a knife to cut off the piece of flesh. Compared to those unfortunate people who were cursed, this method could greatly prevent the spread of the petrification curse and its aftereffects.

As for the unfortunate cursed souls in the medical cave, they are at least crippled, and even if they are cured, they will permanently lose their ability to work and fight.

Dwarves are almost immune to the petrification curse. "Rusty Beard" Barthes swung his hammer and smashed it hard on the rock skeleton's legs. "Die, you disgusting thing!" The rocky legs broke off completely, and the heavy upper body collapsed onto the roadblock. Then, another hammer blow struck the chest, sending stone chips flying. After several more heavy blows, the rock skeleton finally fell apart completely.

"Throw a torch!" A torch was thrown onto the scattered rock skeleton, releasing a pungent, acrid smell. The remaining flesh and core quickly charred, twisted, and deformed under the scorching flames. Dealing with just one rock skeleton was already fraught with danger, and in the darkness, many more rock skeletons and rock monsters were moving and active, heading towards the old mine.

"What exactly is this thing here? Logically speaking, these monsters should have appeared in the mines here much earlier!" the mayor asked breathlessly.

"How should I know? Maybe these ugly monsters don't want us to die in our sleep!" The dwarf adjusted his helmet and charged toward the second rock skeleton near the roadblock. He skillfully smashed the leg, stepped on the counterattacking arm, smashed the head with one hammer, pierced the chest with two hammer blows, and then used his off-hand pickaxe to hook the core of flesh and blood, tearing it to pieces.

However, even with the dwarves' stamina, they were still panting heavily after smashing over the third rock skeleton. To break through these hard rocks, each strike required activating the dwarves' extraordinary martial arts and strength. At most, the stonemason's hammer used by ordinary human militias would only break off a few more stone chips.

A few blows were enough to make "Rusty Beard" Barthes extremely tired, and when a dwarf is in a state of extreme fatigue, the petrification curse can overcome his resistance and take effect.

The ends of his beard and thick body hair had begun to show gray petrification marks. When he tried to groom his beard during a break in the battle, he found that about one-third of his beard had turned into stone. As he moved, it shattered and fell to the ground, revealing a bald patch on his chin.

Immediately, a torrent of filthy curses, so foul even the most shameless dwarf would blush, poured from Barthes's mouth. This was the third reason dwarves hated rock skeletons and earth elementals, even surpassing their petrification of minerals and their corrosiveness of barley wine. Meanwhile, on the other side…

"Dive!" Roach shouted, and Alessina, who was holding a rock skeleton with her twin swords, shuddered. A small metal test tube flew and landed on the rock skeleton's body. Before it hit the ground, the little witch controlled it and pierced the rock skeleton's body.

"Boom!" Rocks flew everywhere, and the entire rock skeleton exploded from the inside. The swirling, hard rocks even knocked down a nearby rock skeleton. Alessina raised his hand and covered his head and face with his arm armor. Even so, several bloody marks appeared on his arms.

Roach's new energy material can ensure the elimination of a rock skeleton in one go, but without the Little Witch's unlimited "Curse Neutralizing Potion," the sharp stone fragments flying everywhere could also send all his teammates to their deaths.

"Open your mouth!" Old Ma grabbed a rock skeleton that had turned into a hunting dog, forcefully prying open its mouth. The petrification curse spread across its skin, but was quickly burned away by the demonic fire. "Rocky, kid, give me some of your stimulating stuff!" A small test tube was tossed over, which Old Ma caught and shoved into the rock skeleton hunting dog's mouth before the crystals inside could react. "Here we go!"

"Awooo!" The hunting dog let out a strange howl and was kicked away by the old horse. "Boom!" "Whoosh~" The black horse-headed giant whistled, which was really nice from a demon's aesthetic point of view.

"There's not much explosive left, so use it sparingly!" Roach didn't dare to prepare too much. Even with the witch's help to stabilize the alchemical materials, he didn't dare to carry a large amount on him. So, soon there wasn't much of this potion left.

"..." The little witch stretched out her hand, and several bright yellow lights lit up in the darkness. The hollow shell that had been emptied collapsed with a bang. Then she carefully placed these earth element balls into a crystal container. However, even the witch could only manipulate and store a very limited amount of earth element. Each time she did this, it was a drain on the little witch's already limited physical strength.

She hadn't gone far when two sickly blushes appeared on her face, and tiny beads of sweat covered her forehead and cheeks. As the night wind blew by, she shivered.

"Keep the young lady away, don't catch a cold, Lulua, it's up to you!"

“Yes, my confidant!” The girl stepped on Leon’s shoulder, leaped over his head, flipped her body like a dolphin emerging from the water, and slashed down with her foot, as if it were a heavy battle axe, severing the entire limb of a rock skeleton.

Upon landing, Lulua nimbly dodged Rock Skeleton's sluggish counterattack. Her fist, encased in Moon Coil mode, slammed heavily into the latter's knees, causing the monster made of rock and flesh to kneel down. "Crunch!" With her swords at Rock Skeleton's neck, she slowly sliced ​​into it as Ryan exerted force, severing the entire rock head. Then, she thrust her sword down into the exposed chest cavity.

"The number of rock skeletons is much less than I imagined..." There were only three or five rock skeletons moving on the street. Even if you add the ones in the mine, there are no more than 20 rock skeletons. If you include the ones that Roach blew up, there are a total of about 30 to 40 rock skeletons. For a town with nearly 300 households, it can be assumed that only a very small number of people have turned into rock skeletons.

"It's also possible that only a very small number of people have transformed into rock skeletons, while the majority are still in the process of transformation." Demonization is a continuous process, not a rapid instantaneous one, which means that if some people were just killed by the petrification curse or rock skeletons, they are still in the process of being transformed by the curse.

"So tough!" Alessina glanced at the deformed weapon in her hand and the rock monster on the ground. Compared to the rock skeleton, the rock monster was easier to deal with. At least it didn't have a curse, and even a melee attack could kill it.

The appearance of the rock monster is that of a rock covered with moss or crystals without facial features. It generally looks like a large, rough humanoid or beast-shaped rock. If it is subjected to enough impact and damage, it will fall apart, and as long as its heart is not removed, it can quickly regenerate.

However, considering that the heart is like a magical mineral blind box, adventurers will generally search for hearts as much as possible. But searching for a fist-sized rock heart in a pile of rubble is usually very time-consuming. So, if they don't have enough time, most adventurers will leave it there and deal with all the rock monsters before searching for it one by one.

However, with the little witch around, the job became much easier. Soon, Old Ma's basket was filled with seven or eight stone hearts. These hearts were so lifelike that they seemed ready to beat at any moment. Inside the hearts were pieces of magical minerals, the specific minerals of which depended on luck.

Bad luck might result in something like black iron, good luck might result in mithril or star silver, and there's a very small chance it could be something as expensive and rare as "stardust iron (meteorite)" or "ether gold".

However, unless it's a super-large rock monster, you're lucky if you can consistently get black iron or low-quality magic gems from a regular rock monster. More often than not, you'll get chunks of "magic rock ore," a type of enchanted rock structure. The magic-resistant bricks used in castles and walls are usually made by bonding together this kind of magic rock ore powder.

This allows the city wall to form a stable, large-scale magic circle, which is a component of the city's defense and magic resistance systems. However, its wide range of uses and low price are not contradictory—do you expect to sell this otherworldly limestone for a few copper coins?

Therefore, small rock monsters are preferred by adventurers because they are easy to deal with, and their drop rate is not much lower than that of medium rock monsters, except that they will never drop Star Silver or Abyss Crystals.

Finding magic rock ore is considered breaking even, while finding black iron or red copper is considered making a profit. Moreover, small rock monsters are generally only the size of medium-sized hounds, the kind that a strong warrior can kill with a couple of blows of a hammer.

However, it's different when it comes to medium-sized rock monsters, like the ones Roach and his group are facing. First, the drop rate is still the same, with only a slight chance of getting Star Silver or similar items. Second, they live in groups. Third, they have some tactical capabilities. Finally... they can't be easily broken with a regular hammer unless it's a hammer wielded by a superhuman or an enchanted blunt weapon.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" Stone arrows shot towards Leon. In the distance, a dozen or so medium-sized rock monsters raised their arms and used their fingers as arrows to fire. The lost rocks were quickly replenished from the earth.

"Bang!" The sound of stones hitting each other rang out from the shield that the little witch had hastily constructed. The witch was not afraid of this kind of long-range exchange of fire at all.

After drinking a potion of stamina (herbal preparation), the witch, who had regained some strength, raised her staff. An invisible aura gathered at the tip of the staff, and even in the dark of a moonless night, the twisted and condensed aura could be seen through the light of an oil lamp.

"Bang!" The air mass rolled over like a battering ram, smashing the first rock monster to pieces. Then, the high-pressure airflow stripped large pieces of rock and soil from the bodies of the remaining rock monsters. Wind elemental spells are the best way to deal with these earth elemental creatures.

Whether it's the regular Wind Hammer and Wind Blast spells, or even spells like Gale Pierce, they can cause severe damage to earth elemental creatures, not only physical damage but also the effect of elemental annihilation.

Secondly, fire elemental spells can cause rocks to crack and melt due to intense explosions and high temperatures, eventually condensing into igneous rock structures, making these rock-like creatures difficult to move. However, water elemental spells have no effect at all.

Neither corrosion nor poison is of much use to these rock monsters.

"Bang! Bang bang bang!" As the witch waved her staff, wisps of energy were condensed and thrown out. With the help of the ritual field, the little witch could do this much more easily than by directly drawing elemental magic. Condensing, shaping, and throwing were all things that even a novice in arcane arts could do with ease.

As for the biggest difficulty of this tactic or spell: "how to hit" is a problem that the gas clouds should think about themselves, not Livia's problem. She just throws them. Even without that strange influence, as long as she throws enough gas clouds quickly enough, there will always be a rock monster that catches them with its head or body.

"On the slope, it looks like someone's coming to kill us!?"

"It must be that kid Leon!" Rusty Hubbards leaned on his hammer, looking as if he had been pulled out of the water.

"Leon, who?"

"I don't know what the church's paladins are doing now, but they're definitely not here to deal with your mess!" The dwarf glanced at the broken roadblock. Perhaps the battle on Livia's side had attracted a lot of attention, because there were only a few rock monsters left in front of the roadblock. Compared to the rock skeletons with the petrification curse, the rock monsters were not a big deal for everyone.

Because this kind of thing is the main monster output of towns that mainly focus on mining and quarrying! It's the kind of thing you can encounter in the wild even if you just go out for a smoke. And because it moves slowly, most ordinary miners' first reaction and best course of action when they encounter this thing is: run!

Secondly, you can use your size advantage to smash it. After all, small rock monsters can be killed if you have a large group and blunt weapons, and you might even get some good loot. As for medium and large ones, they are rare, and if you encounter them, they won't terrify you. You can calmly run away and then scrape together some money to hire adventurers to deal with these monsters.

Therefore, when the rock monsters appeared, the militiamen who had been trembling in front of the roadblock breathed a sigh of relief. Although the medium-sized rock monsters were also difficult targets for them, after being stimulated by Bang through the thin roadblock separating them from the rock skeletons, the militiamen suddenly felt that these rock monsters were not so hideous anymore—in other words, "They're not scary anymore~"

Chapter 370