Witch Troupe and the Undead

Leon swung his two-handed sword, cleaving through a broken-down cart blocking his path. Almost as the blade sliced ​​through the wood, the little witch's wind hammer struck the head of a small rock skeleton hiding behind the cart, blasting its entire head off.

Leon ignored the rock skeleton, kicked its body aside, and held his two swords horizontally in front of him to block the stone fragments thrown by the rock monster from the side, letting the rock skeleton crash into the houses.

"Leon, run this way!"

"It's that old bastard Rusthu!" Leon forced back the approaching rock monsters with a few quick sword strikes and moved towards the fence and barricades on the slope. "Livia! Light up!"

"Oh!" The little witch lifted her skirt and pointed her staff forward. The flames still burning in the nearby furnace gathered towards her as if they were alive, eventually turning into a ball of incandescent light that flew forward. "Bang!" The stream of flames fell like a waterfall, illuminating the path ahead.

"It seems that Princess Livia has taken action." The mayor breathed a slight sigh of relief. If a witch had made a move, then the current situation wouldn't be so bad.

Black Horse was at the back of the group. He grabbed a rock monster with one hand and slammed it against it. These elemental creatures were not poisoned, stunned, or paralyzed, but this attack was a powerful blunt strike. Stones flew everywhere, leaving only a small piece of debris in his palm. Black Horse then threw the debris over the roadblock.

Amid the militiamen's gasps, it crashed onto the slope, completely shattering the remaining torso. Two militiamen decisively smashed the two exposed rock cores on the ground with hammers, revealing the dark luster of black iron ore sand inside.

"Young Miss!" After dropping what he was holding, Old Ma stretched out his right hand. Livia hesitated for a moment, then placed her small hand on it. The black horse then tossed her onto his back. Amid the little girl's exclamation, Old Ma leaped over Leon's head and landed behind the roadblock. Livia was so frightened by this dangerous scene that her face turned pale.

"Wait, I..." Roach wanted to speed up, but then he saw Lulua rush over with a determined expression, hoist him onto her shoulder, and jump over the roadblock in two steps.

The contrast between the small girl, who was less than 1 meters tall, carrying a rather tall man on her shoulders, left the town mayor stunned for a few seconds.

Alessina and Leon naturally didn't need anyone's help to jump over the roadblock. But just after everyone entered behind the roadblock, before the mayor and others could even breathe a sigh of relief, they heard the sound of some kind of giant beast trampling on buildings and roads.

"Full speed ahead!" With a deafening roar, a small mountain with four giant rock legs charged forward with overwhelming force, smashing everything in its path, from furnaces and rubble to houses, into the sky.

"Hiss~" The mayor gasped. The damage caused by all the rocks and monsters combined was less than one-third of the damage caused by this single charge. What was even more terrifying was that this rock monster, whose nature was unknown, suddenly leaped from above everyone's heads to the middle of the mine.

"Boom!" The buildings surrounding the old mine shook violently and toppled over. "Holy crap, how did that guy convince the cabin?!"

"More monsters are appearing outside!" Leslie's voice rang out from inside the cabin. "We can't stay outside anymore!"

"Wait, where does she get her magic from?"

"Isn't there another bull's head?" Roach and the others quickly ran down the slope to the bottom of the mine. The hut had landed, its four legs burrowing into the soil, turning into a low slope in the center of the mine.

"...?" Livia curiously peeked into the cabin. She didn't provide the cabin with any magic, so was its movement magic supplied by the Minotaur?

"My God..." Minotaur knelt behind the hut, his entire demonic form pale. "This thing consumes magic too fast..." Without the witch's magic, it almost drained him dry doing this.

"Now you know why you can't mess with the young lady, right?" Black Horse patted Minotaur's shoulder sympathetically. "She can ruin you just by draining your magic." After talking to the hut and all sorts of random things, Livia looked at Roach. "Outside, there are a lot of... um, demonized creatures, earth elemental demons."

The main creatures are petrified tree spirits and a large number of rock monsters, as well as a small number of rock giants. In addition, there are an extremely large number of petrified beasts, which are mutated wild beasts that have absorbed excessive earth elemental magic.

It has no special abilities, except that it is slightly more durable than ordinary wild beasts, but it doesn't drop anything, and its meat is not even edible.

“We’re surrounded…” Livia seemed to be deep in thought. With the hut’s capabilities, they could easily break out, but the problem was that only she and the two demons could power the hut. Without knowing the size of the encirclement, running out rashly didn’t seem like a good idea.

"How big is the encirclement?" Roach also thought of this and looked at Old Ma, the only one here who might know such things. "I'll go take a look!" Old Ma quickly disappeared into the shadows, and a few minutes later, he jumped out of the shadows again. "It's probably impossible to break out. There are at least seven or eight hundred Rock Beasts alone, and there are even larger things moving around."

Such a group of monsters can almost be called a "monster tide", especially the black five types, which are mainly rock skeletons. Not to mention that the petrifying tree spirit is also a black five type, but compared to the rock skeleton, it moves more slowly and has lower defense, but at the same time it still has the ability to spread the petrification curse.

“It’s a summoned creature…” After exchanging words with the cabin for a while, Livia’s emerald eyes showed a hint of confusion, and she repeated, “It’s a summoned creature.”

Summoned creatures mean that these rock formations are not transformed from actual matter and living beings, so they cannot stray too far from the summoner. Conversely, being summoned creatures means that it is difficult to clear a path by killing these rock formations. Unless the summoner and the summoning ritual are eliminated, what you kill may not be as fast as what the summoner summons.

As for not killing these rock skeletons and rushing out directly... Old Ma just checked, and it's completely impossible. To be precise, the little witch has to maintain the protective barrier while moving the hut, which will consume her stamina very quickly. She'll collapse from exhaustion before she even gets out. In that case, a group of people will be facing attacks from hundreds of summoned creatures in an area with almost no defense.

“Your Highness Livia, and Master Roach, I truly wish we weren’t meeting under these circumstances,” the mayor said with a wry smile. “I had already sent a letter to the knight, but…”

“You should give up that idea. I know Baron Whitebeard better than you do,” Leon said, arms crossed. “He’ll definitely think you’re exaggerating and just trying to delay tax collection. He won’t even bother to send a patrolman over to take a look.”

"..." Luo Qi never had any expectations of medieval nobles. He was a history student, after all. It would be a miracle if someone who studied history could have any good opinions about these ancient nobles and powerful figures. On the contrary, for them, they could witness firsthand the various ruthless things these nobles did from time to time.

Even those less expensive items didn't produce any particularly impressive feats, such as Emperor Wuzong of Northern Zhou, who was practically a human-shaped rare earth specimen.

Even someone like Roach remained silent for a while after hearing the answer. "Is he an idiot? How could any subordinate dare to make up something so important?" Leslie asked, her voice filled with confusion before Roach could speak.

“You’re right, he’s just a typical foolish son of a manor lord,” Leon shrugged. “That kind of noble is the most common. Nobles who can kill on horseback and govern the people on foot can usually only be found in three places.”

"Border, rebels and prison"—just kidding. These aristocratic elites who can handle both military and political affairs are not considered talents by the higher-ranking nobles, kings, and emperors. Instead, they are ticking time bombs. Whenever there is an opportunity to hire an assassin, they will not hesitate for a second.

On the contrary, useless people like Baron Whitebeard often live a long time. Of course, the above reasoning only applies when the world is relatively peaceful and there is no war. Once a large-scale war breaks out between countries or territories, such as the Thirty Years' War or the Hundred Years' War on Earth, then such useless people will die within three days.

However, back then... it's hard to say whether it was a unified country or a fragmented mess of warlords.

As dawn broke and the sunlight shone, the rock formations gradually ceased their activity, the thick rocks becoming armor against the harmful rays of the sun. Only the rock monsters continued to roam around. However, in the forest outside the town, the petrified tree spirits not only did not stop their activities, but instead became even more active.

"It seems the only way is to go inside the mine during the day and completely deal with that thing behind the stone door." This was the same opinion that Roach and the others shared with the town mayor.

"What do you know about the Calamity of the Earth?" Roach brought up the term, but the mayor looked blank and said he had never heard of such a name before.

"The Calamity of the Earth... I think I've heard of it, but I don't think I have. Ah, it was at least 50 years ago. I think I saw it in the notes of some master blacksmith." "Is it the one about the Heart of Titan or the method of smelting Titan Iron? Hmm, I'll go back and look for it for you. Maybe that note is still there."

Rustbeard wasn't sure if he'd heard of it or not. Dwarves had a terrible habit of giving the same thing many names, which was the opposite of the elves. Elven language was precise and unambiguous, so elven scholars were keen to give every thing a precise definition.

In contrast, dwarves are different. When they encounter something, as they learn more about it, they will gradually give it a lot of names, and these names will often be the same as other things.

“Dwarves name other things, especially ores and metals, according to their own preferences and the characteristics of the objects. There are about a dozen metals named after Titans, and more than three hundred different names and words.” Livia quickly retrieved the records about dwarves and elves that she had read before in her mind and read them out in a purely flat and monotonous tone.

"Terms such as Titan Ingot, Titan Iron, Titan Nodule, Giant Steel, Heart of the Mountain... all refer to the same metal..."

"What is it?" Leslie asked curiously. Something that could be given so many names must be incredibly powerful. The witch's emerald eyes showed signs of fatigue, and then she uttered a single word: "Forged Steel."

"Huh? Forged steel?" Isn't that just ordinary steel? "Yes, forged steel is steel that is condensed from the furnace and then forged."

"Uh... I didn't expect you to know even this?" Rustbeard scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly. This was indeed a hellish joke of the dwarves. After all, any civilization develops from primitive to advanced. Even if there are various reasons that cause technological decline along the way, in the end, technology does not fall from the sky.

So when dwarven technology was still relatively primitive, melting down iron ore mined from the mountains and forging it into steel was a very advanced technology at the time. Compared to the stone tools that humans were still using, the bronze tools that elves were still playing with, and the iron tools that dwarves were barely managing to make, it seems reasonable to call this finely forged steel Titan ingots or Titan iron.

“Amber ingot…” Livia uttered another word, and Rustbeard’s face turned even worse. He almost cried out, “Master, stop reading! Stop reading!”

"what is that?"

"Bronze alloy"

"..."

"Then... what are high-grade metals called?"

"Ebony Ingot"

"what?"

“Refined Gold Ingots are alloys forged from Abyssal Iron, with the addition of adamantite and a small amount of dark copper. They are generally used to forge high-level anti-magic armor or heavy enchanted weapons.” Livia looked at Rustbeard. “So, the Calamity of the Earth…?”

"I'm not sure either, so what I mean is, don't get your hopes up too high; maybe it just refers to some kind of ordinary ore."

Rustbeard also completely skipped the topic. He couldn't lie to Livia's face. Dwarves weren't good at lying, not because of honesty or traditional honor, but because their stone heads made it difficult to come up with a flawless lie. So, for dwarves, lying was a high-cost, low-return activity.

Therefore, he could only choose to skip this damned topic as much as possible. However, the Earth's Calamity... it did sound like the naming style of dwarves. He just didn't know if this name was the same as others, just like Titan Iron and Titan God Iron are completely different things. And the Heart of Titan is a special mineral. That's right, it's a magical gem made artificially based on Titan Crystal.

When the dwarven civilization was still advanced, it was usually the core power source of a mountain kingdom. Although its energy storage was lower than that of Titan crystals, it had the advantage of being able to absorb the fire magic of underground magma to charge itself and maintain the production of the "Great Furnace" at the core of the kingdom.

“If we were to go down into the mine, we would need a lot of materials. I think we shouldn’t have to worry about that now, right?” Roach looked up at the top of the mine, where most of the town’s furnaces had been extinguished or destroyed. It seemed that we didn’t need to worry about the price now.

“But our ore is also on the hillside… Well, I understand what you mean.” The mayor sighed, looking at the caves and dilapidated houses around the mine. “We need to fix this place first, otherwise… even if we have ore, it will be difficult to smelt usable metal. And… you need some help, don’t you?”

It doesn't refer to the helpers who go down into the well, but rather the helpers who provide support, such as repairing weapons and armor, manufacturing ammunition, and reinforcing the roadblocks if they don't want to come back to find the place occupied by rocks.

“Hmm…”; Roach looked around at the dilapidated facilities of the old mine, the mine shafts on the hillside emitting some kind of ominous magical light, the broken town, the incomplete infrastructure, and the tools that needed to be upgraded and repaired with various minerals and materials… It seemed that it wouldn’t be out of place to put a red tentacle hook outside the central hut.

What? You're asking why Professor Roach still has time to play games? Of course! He doesn't always have fieldwork. He has plenty of free time outside of his regular teaching duties—compared to science and engineering majors, his major is relatively... leisurely.

Of course, this refers to when there's nothing to do. When there's something to do... deep mountains and forests, remote wilderness, construction sites, places you can think of and places you can't even imagine, you have to go!

Moreover, it's not just a matter of excavation; afterwards, there's a whole host of tasks, including cleaning, investigation, identification, and research, requiring the full utilization of high-tech equipment and laboratories (such as molecular biology analysis of the DNA of ancient remains).

However, the above refers to times when there is work to be done. When there is no work, there is really nothing to do. It is either extremely busy or extremely idle. After all, the work projects in this industry largely depend on chance, such as building subways, construction sites, or even farmers digging wells, digging ditches, and turning over fields.

The rest of the time was basically spent on subdividing subjects and writing papers. For Professor Roach's level, writing those papers didn't take much time at all.

“Hmm~” Livia agreed with the mayor’s suggestion, and she also felt that her companions and apprentices should have their equipment upgraded, especially those rocky remains…

With her current fighting strength, it would be difficult to deal with, and she was also very curious about what was down there. After all, it was the first time the little witch had encountered something she didn't know, and she was quite curious about it.

Of course, another reason is that these guys disturbed her sleep twice in a row, which made the little witch very uncomfortable.

Chapter 389

The old mine pit and its dilapidated smelting furnace had been moved to an open area. The ore extracted from the Heart of Rock was piled inside the cold furnace. Livia squatted in front of the furnace, inspecting it for a while, then nodded to Rustbeard, clenching her small fist in front of her, "Good luck!"

"Ah..." Rusty Beard paused for a moment, scratched his head, and picked up the iron hammer beside him. "Alright, since you've put it that way."

As the witch shoved a screaming fire elemental into the furnace, the furnace heated up at an astonishing speed. Black iron ore and wrought iron blocks were fed into the furnace and heated together. Once both had softened, they were then stacked together and forged.

Rusty Beard rhythmically tapped the stacked metal blocks, judging the condition of the metal ingots by observing the flying sparks. Black iron ingots could be melted down or forged like this, the latter being more laborious but of better quality.

After several tens of minutes of forging, even the superhuman dwarf felt his hands go weak. He used pliers to pick up the dark red metal block, put it into a basin of fine white ash, covered it with ash, and waited for it to slowly anneal and cool down. Then he got a piece of dark, hard metal.

“Master Roach, you’d better use these crossbow bullets sparingly. Forging black iron is quite a hassle.” The dwarf took out a bag of ale and took a swig. He then reheated the black iron block, stretched it into a long, narrow metal plate, cut it into thin, long metal sheets, and forged it into long nail shapes.

Roach handed the metal nails to the little witch, Livia, who nodded. She manipulated the flames of the furnace to drill an incredibly tiny hole in each nail. This ammunition was much smaller and more expensive than the previous ones. Carefully, she sifted out a few milligrams of shimmering, milky-white crystals from a metal test tube, filled the hole, and then sealed it with molten tin.

The only advantage of this magical explosive is that it cannot be ignited or detonated by flames and high temperatures; even molten tin poured on it did not cause it to explode on the spot.

"Is this okay?"

"It also needs an enchantment..." An enchantment with a stabilization spell, otherwise it will explode on the acceleration trajectory at the moment of launch. Therefore, a stabilization spell is needed to reduce the vibration of the projectile during acceleration.

"Let's give it a try!" Leon dragged over the remains of a rock skeleton. The rock skeleton was already dead, but the outer shell of the bluestone structure was still intact. At least for a day, it would not be enough to "exorcise" it. Leon stuffed a roll of dry grass into the hollow cavity of the withered flesh to simulate the core of the rock skeleton.

"Make way!" Roach loaded the spiked bullet into the magic crossbow, channeling runic magic into the weapon's trajectory. "Bang!" The black iron spiked bullet accurately pierced the blue rock shell, followed by a violent explosion. Countless fragments of rock shot out from the back of the rock skeleton, and the straw inside, which simulated flesh and blood, was completely shattered.

“Ordinary knight enchanted armor can’t stop this little thing at all…” Leon weighed a spiked bullet in his hand. “As for extraordinary physiques… anyone below level III would be shattered in one shot.”

He didn't feel threatened or that his martial arts skills would be useless, because putting aside the cost of the black iron nails themselves, the holes for filling them were difficult for most blacksmiths to drill, even though they were small and deep, without Livia's control.

Then there's the kind of "powerful explosives" that Roach sets up. The materials aren't expensive, but they're a bit labor-intensive.

Adding to the difficulties of warehousing, transporting, storing, and distributing it, Leon only considered this thing as a special alchemical tool. Furthermore, considering that Master Roach might have killed himself several times in the process, and that it would take the lives of several alchemists to exchange for a single ordinary high-ranking knight, the weapon's value became highly questionable.

At least that was the case before Master Roach fixed the stability flaw in this thing, and the bullet also needed to be enchanted with a stabilization spell. To be fair, if it weren't for the fact that the enemy was something like rock skeletons, the manpower cost of this thing would have exceeded that of most high-level magical items.

A single black iron ingot was used to forge a total of 40 of these high-explosive armor-piercing rounds, which Roach carefully stored in an ammunition pouch enchanted with a stabilizing barrier. Well, the market price for such an enchanted pouch is about 300 gold coins each, including 5 gold coins for materials and 295 gold coins for crafting.

Furthermore, it requires consuming a favor from a "Sage" or "Witch." That's right, only a sorcerer of this level can reliably create this kind of enchanted backpack or equipment. As for archmages at the Star Silver level, they can make it, but the success rate and effect are not guaranteed.

Most of those rock hearts were useless magic rock ore, with a small amount of black iron sand used to forge two black iron ingots, one to strengthen Leon's weapons and the other to make Roach's ammunition. Now they are completely gone.

As for reforging that divine sword, it would require at least five pieces of black iron, not even counting other materials. Rather than wasting the artifact fragments, it would be better to strengthen Leon's equipment first.

As noon approached, the activity of the rock skeletons slowed down considerably, but the petrified demon trees became extremely active. Roach, Livia, and the others returned to the mine entrance, which was completely different from before. The man-made framework had been swallowed up by the rocks, leaving only a winding stone corridor that seemed to be inviting them to step into it.

The rocks form an interlocking support structure inside the cave, and drops of cold water drip down the stalactites. The mine tunnels and various facilities carved by humans have disappeared between the rocks and soil. Only the occasional twisted railway tracks exposed on the ground prove that this was once a mine.

"Click!" Old Ma, who was walking at the front, suddenly changed his expression. Dozens of bluish-gray rock spikes rose abruptly from the ground, leaving several bloody marks on his black horsehide. "I..." Old Ma was about to utter a string of curses, but after seeing the little witch's unfriendly eyes, he swallowed them back. "This thing is quite the character!"

"Trap? This is certainly unusual." This isn't some ancient ruin, but a human mine. These traps were clearly created by the thing sealed below. "Does this thing lack the power, or does it have the power to spare?"

If they had no spare capacity and could only rely on traps to kill, then the pile of rocks and petrified demon trees outside would be hard to explain; if they had spare capacity... then the purpose of the traps would be unclear.

“This isn’t a trap, it’s a disguise,” Leon said, his expression turning serious. “The structure of this cave is transforming into some kind of underground city. If nothing unexpected happens, it will become a very secure dungeon in a few months, just like those treasure-filled palaces. I guess that the demon trees will also become the first line of defense, using these minerals and gold to lure adventurers in.”

"Like some kind of bait?" Leslie asked. "Yes, bait. It tries to lure adventurers into the labyrinth or dungeon and then kill them inside, and in a reasonable way—like a trap." Countless adventurers have been killed by traps while exploring dungeons.

"Isn't this too much trouble?"

"It's not troublesome. This also shows that the thing below is probably similar to a spider or something. This is its web. It uses this web to trap its prey, and then digests these enchanted rocks and rock monsters. In the end, the remains become rock skeletons and are released, further expanding the influence and the range of the web, and so on." In Leon's memory, none of the monsters with this ability and characteristics were easy to deal with; they were basically all lord-level monsters.

“A lord-level monster, at least.” Alessina agreed with the knight’s opinion, her hand turning slightly white from the effort. “Let’s move on… the previous mine structure can only serve as a reference.”

Because the thing below is already meticulously arranging its own labyrinth. The further down you go, the more exquisite the rocks become, even beginning to transform into some kind of corridor and dungeon structure. However, looking out from those exquisite archways, it still looks like an underground mine, full of stalactites and rocks of all sizes.

Inside the corridor, you can see stalagmites protruding from the ground from time to time, inlaid with sparkling gems.

“No problem~” The little witch touched the stalagmites, a look of surprise on her face. “Of course there won’t be any problem. These are all bait. Only when a small portion of those adventurers leave with their wealth will more adventurers be attracted in. They use treasure to lure their prey… I do know of a few demons that have this habit.” Old Ma said, stroking his chin. “But there’s no smell of hell here, so it shouldn’t be a demon.”

"Since there's no problem, then don't be shy." Leon pulled out a pickaxe from somewhere.

Why are you carrying something like this?

"Nonsense! Do you think the church's exorcism commissions are adventurers' jobs? You can't negotiate prices or get extra bonuses? If you don't find a way to get some loot yourself, you can't even afford to maintain your armor!"

"Wait, aren't you a paladin? Shouldn't the church pay for the maintenance of your armor and weapons?"

"The church is paying for the equipment in terms of organization!" Leon said succinctly, swinging his pickaxe and smashing it against the stalagmite, accurately knocking off a large chunk of dark ore. "Inferior black iron ore, at most two ounces of sand will be produced."

"How do you even know how to identify minerals?!" Leslie was shocked. Did the paladins usually live such a poor life?

“Generally speaking, paladins usually earn a good income, but… I’m not the kind of paladin you’d expect.” Leon shrugged. He rarely got the chance to go out on assignments, and because of his behavior, he’d had his pay docked more than once or twice.

While places like the Sealing Bureau certainly pay well, it's also quite expensive to chat with the guys there every now and then. So, it's necessary to try to find as many ways to generate income as possible when you're on a mission.

Considering that Leon did indeed have a large family to support, no one asked him why he was so short of money; it would be strange if he wasn't. The stalagmites near the entrance consisted of only a few worthless pieces of black iron ore, and the lowest quality at that. The further in you went, the more the light seemed to be absorbed by the rocks; even the light orbs summoned by the little witch could only illuminate the very narrow surroundings.

The light reflected and danced between the uneven shadows of the rocks and between the stones shaped like pillars, making each stain and shadow seem like some kind of lurking monster.