Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Rock-like beasts, two!" Two rock-form monsters burst out of the wall from among the rocks. These monsters resembled some kind of wild beast, but were entirely made of jagged, sharp rocks and had no facial features.

"They're pretty good at controlling the pace... I'll handle these two." Leon flexed his wrists and stepped forward, drawing his wolf-headed greatsword as he spoke. "This monster seems to know how to control the difficulty level, not putting adventurers in dire straits right from the start, but gradually luring them deeper in. Pretty clever, little brat~"

The two rock-like beasts took a half step back, like two hunting dogs made of rock, rushing at them from the left and right. "Clang!" The greatsword was held horizontally to block the sharp stone claws. Leon simply tilted the sword slightly to deflect the claws to the side and sent them flying. He then kicked the rock-like beast on the right, sending it flying.

Rock-like beasts, as a type of small rock monster, are enemies that even militiamen without superhuman strength can easily defeat with a few blunt weapons. For skilled adventurers, they can be taken down with just two hammer blows. However, Leon deliberately stalled these rock-like beasts for a while before smashing one's head with the hilt of his sword and completely piercing the rock heart of another, rendering it unusable.

"You mean..." Roach and Livia, who knew nothing about martial arts, couldn't figure out what Leon was doing at all. Only Alessina showed a curious expression.

“I want to know how this thing controls the difficulty,” Leon examined the wreckage on the ground. “This looks like an ordinary rock-like beast, not a summon, and it doesn’t have any special magical attachments… So, how exactly does the core control the difficulty curve?”

"Hmm, nothing strange~" Livia also examined the remains and put away the intact rock heart. However, everyone thought that there was at most a little bit of magic rock ore inside.

"That's simple, it's just big data."

"What does that mean? What does 'big...number' mean?" Even the little witch looked at her with confusion, as she didn't understand Roach's neologism either.

"That's quite simple. Since it controls this maze, it should know how many rock monsters are in each area. Even if it doesn't know the specific battle process, it can still detect the number of rock monsters deployed, the number of people entering, and the speed and number of rock monsters disappearing to a certain extent. As long as it collects enough information, it can determine the level of the adventurers entering and adjust the difficulty of the subsequent routes."

On Earth, this isn't even considered an advanced theory; in statistics, corresponding theories and calculation methods have long been developed. However, here, nobody studies this kind of thing. This theory made Leon suddenly realize, "Ah, so that means that thing can't actually monitor every single detail of our actions?" That leaves a lot of room for maneuver.

"Oh, I was just saying. After all, we don't know what powers that thing actually has. What if it really can monitor our every move?" Roach shrugged. Besides, it's not impossible on Earth. Livia could only confirm that the rock monster hadn't been tampered with, and there were no active control mechanisms or magical effects, but that didn't mean the maze itself didn't have observational spells. For example, there might be seven or eight cameras hidden around the corners.

"Anyway, we'll find out as we keep going." Leon said, watching the remains of these rock monsters gradually lose their magic after losing their magical hearts, turning into piles of rubble and dirt. "I used two different methods when dealing with these rock monsters, you'll see as we go on."

These are two different fighting styles against elemental creatures: one uses a blunt weapon simulated by a sword hilt and iron gauntlets, and the other uses a sharp weapon. The sharp weapon kills the creature the fastest, followed by the blunt weapon, thus indicating that there is a skilled swordsman and a novice hammer warrior in the team.

If the other party uses the kind of big data analysis Roach mentioned, then the difficulty will only change in the type of monster, the number of traps, the number of monsters, and the ambush locations, if there is indeed some kind of precise monitoring.

So, without a doubt, the next step will be to deal with individuals who specialize in defending against sharp weapons, and to counter those who are novice at using blunt weapons. Of course, this change in difficulty will be controlled within an appropriate range to prevent adventurers from fleeing in panic or completely closing off the area.

Whether the other party is after souls or flesh and blood, the fact that it has shown this attitude of "managing the dungeon" means that attracting adventurers or outsiders to explore is very important to it.

As for the reasons... several people here can give completely different answers, and all of them are feasible and have case studies.

For example, Livia thought it might be for the sake of the souls, because the souls of the dead were shattered before they left their bodies, and the number of fragments did not match the quality of the spirits.

Leon believed it might be some kind of evil blood sacrifice ritual, using flesh and soul to enhance one's power or to achieve some evil purpose;

Lulua, on the other hand, believes that it may be a way to wear down the seal of the Earth Goddess or some other deity, using a large number of death concepts to impact and confuse the rules of life and death here.

Leslie, however, believed that it was possible that the purpose was to create more subordinates and followers, with the rock skeletons and petrified demon trees serving as proof, and the goal being to conquer the world—most of the epics and ballads she had read shared this theme.

In the end, Roach thought that the other party was probably just looking for fun, simply because it was entertaining. Of course, considering the "hungry" sound that Livia heard, the probability that he was after flesh and soul to satisfy his hunger was also quite high.

In short, whatever their reasons may be, their stated purpose and means are to attract adventurers and others to enter. As for the towns outside... that's a way to attract large numbers of adventurers and outsiders—the sudden destruction of a mining town would undoubtedly attract many adventurers, knights, and lords' investigators.

“Let’s keep going. Even if it’s trying to open a theme park, we’ll only find out when we reach the end.” No one understood Roach’s analogy, but everyone understood what he meant.

Chapter 390 Replacement

The dark, cold rocks reflected the light of the oil lamp. Their uneven surfaces gleamed with a greasy sheen. Black moss grew in the crevices of the rocks, and every now and then, cold water droplets dripped from the stalactites overhead.

Intersecting stalactites form the columns of the corridor, and gusts of cold wind pass through between these stalactites, causing ripples to spread across the water on the ground. This long corridor connects several independent caves of varying sizes, each with a different layout.

Sometimes you're attacked by several shadow hounds as soon as you enter, and sometimes you're faced with a lone, twisted rock lying in the center, covered with various kinds of inferior crystals that look like gems at first glance, but are actually very low-quality quartz crystals of various colors upon closer inspection.

As the path goes deeper, the types of traps and obstacles begin to increase, such as walls made of fossilized bones and rocks blocking the middle of the corridor, and stones falling from the sloping overhead tracks.

"How long have we been walking?" Roach held up his oil lamp and shone it ahead. A piece of fossilized bone lay across the roadside, with what seemed to be tiny sparkles within its ribs.

"About... two hours?" Leon frowned, looked around, and then asked, "Hey, have you guys noticed that the noise around us has started to increase?"

"What's that noise?" Roach shone the oil lamp around but saw nothing. Livia nodded slightly, "Hmm, it's a bit noisy." The whispers in the air became more frequent, and besides the thing coming from the core of the seal, there were some other noises.

"There shouldn't be any rats here, right?" Leslie held up the oil lamp and looked around, but found nothing except for water droplets rolling down the rocks. Even the black moss, upon closer inspection, was made up of incredibly tiny crystals.

In this labyrinthine underground mine tunnels, they were the only beings of flesh and blood. "I can't explain it, it shouldn't be my imagination..." Leon shook his head and continued walking ahead. No one was more suitable to lead the way than a heavily armored knight like himself.

At the end of the long, winding tunnel is a crossroads, with two roads leading to lower levels on the left and right, and a stone door in the center.

"Huh? We've reached the end?"

“No, it shouldn’t be this door.” Roach looked at the pattern on the door. It was a strange pattern of plants and animals, but it didn’t look like a seal. It looked like a fake door made with reference to a seal.

“Hmm… I have a new idea,” Roach reached out and touched the door. “What do you think… if every room the adventurers see has a door like this, what will they do when they encounter a sealed door with a similar shape?”

“Reach out and push it open. But what kind of seal is so easy to break?” Leon shrugged. A seal not only has to prevent the thing inside from breaking free on its own, but it also usually has to prevent damage from the outside. It’s definitely not something that can be broken by simply tearing off some talismans or easily pushing open a door.

"Perhaps it's not that the seal is being played around, but rather that only this thin layer of the seal remains, and such a careless move could break through the last layer of security." Alessina looked warily at the slopes of the passage on both sides. There didn't seem to be any traps here, but she still needed to be vigilant. After all, Livia was the strongest fighter in the team, but she was also the most vulnerable.

“If the seal really only has one layer left, instead of expending so much power to create such a labyrinth, it would be better to just continue accumulating power and break through in one fell swoop.” Leon felt that Roach’s idea was not very reliable, but he did not completely deny it. “However, if this is part of some kind of powerful ritual, then it can be explained.”

The processes and procedures of esoteric rituals vary greatly. Their scale and length are not even strictly linked to their effectiveness. Some rituals can drive powerful forces with very simple rituals, while others are lengthy and complicated, and therefore have little effect.

“Yes, the canned man is right. Most of the rituals related to sacrifice, ascension, and transformation can be found here.” Old Ma agreed with Leon’s opinion, while Livia counted on her fingers which rituals matched the layout of the place, and finally came to the conclusion that…

"Hmm~ There are too many, I can't think of any..." The invincible little witch was stumped for the first time in her own field of expertise, because there were just too many rituals that met the requirements. She couldn't even tell whether it was a sacrifice or an ascension ritual, because it could be either.

At the same time, both lack the core of the ritual, and based solely on the current clues, she cannot think of any large-scale ritual that would have such an effect or need.

“There’s no use thinking about it so much.” Roach had already placed his hand on the stone door, and with his other hand, he took out the last test tube from his pocket. This was the only test tube left of his “magical explosive.” “Let’s just take them apart one by one. The other side must have expended some energy and magic to create this maze, right?”

“Well, that makes sense, but…” Leon looked up in fear. The depth was at least 20 meters. If it collapsed, everyone would die!

"Hmm!" However, Livia couldn't resist Roach's agreement with her plan. The little witch clenched her fists in a cheering gesture, her emerald eyes shining brightly in the firelight. "Fire in the hole!!" Roach pushed open the door, threw the test tube in without even looking behind it, and then slammed the door shut.

Yes, this phrase is indeed a term used by miners for blasting (although most people learned it from CS), meaning the explosives have been lit and they should run out of the mine as soon as possible.

"Boom!" The stone door bulged outwards, cracks appeared on the door, and many pieces even bulged outwards. Dust and magical light poured out from the cracks for several seconds before stopping.

"Master Roach, just how much stuff did you put in there?"

"It's 20% more than usual, but don't be afraid, this is the last one."

Leon smashed open the cracked and broken stone door with the hilt of his sword, creating a passage for the team to enter. The room was in a mess, with huge boulders that had collapsed from the ceiling and piled up in the center. The walls bore the marks of a magical explosion, and several strange rock creatures were struggling under the boulders. Leon killed these monsters one by one with his sword.

"..." The little witch closed her eyes, hovered her staff in front of her, and spread her arms to the sides. The collapsed rocks floated up again, some flying back to their original positions to reassemble, while others blocked the gate, thus creating a suitable place to set up camp.

Their physical exertion wasn't too severe yet, but considering they were going to venture deeper into the area, proper rest and eating were essential. Eating here doesn't mean eating until they were full, but rather just filling their stomachs a little.

If they were to eat their fill, the increased blood flow to their stomachs would make adventurers feel drowsy and tired. Therefore, unless it was the final camping period at the end of the day, they would eat small, frequent meals to cope with the situation.

Eat a small amount of food and rest for half an hour to an hour. By this time, the food will be mostly digested, and as blood sugar increases, energy and physical strength will recover more quickly.

At the same time, compared to eating until you are completely full, it takes less time and you are more likely to react to unexpected events. Similarly, the same applies to rest and sleep. Most adventurers do not take long breaks in unsafe places, but choose to break them into several short breaks.

Since there were no flammable materials underground, no campfire was lit. Instead, two crystal lamps and an oil lamp were placed together to illuminate the temporary resting place.

"Hmm~" The blonde witch stretched out her arms, and with the movement, her skirt rose slightly, revealing a small section of her smooth and fair calves. Then she sat down on the large stone slab that Old Ma had cleaned, and her small feet in semi-transparent sandals swung back and forth restlessly.

Roach then laid out his bottles, jars, and tools, causing Leon, who was nearby, to scramble to his feet in alarm. "Don't be nervous, this isn't for making those kinds of things," Roach explained, his face full of exasperation. These were for creating normal combat tools for arcane sorcerers, and with his current skill and experience, they wouldn't explode.

Soon, several test tubes filled with colorful liquids appeared on the work rack. Roach packed them into individual small pockets like hand grenades. These were "combat alchemy potions," not magic potions or incense, nor were they more special kinds like elixirs. They used chemistry and potion-making to simulate some of the effects of magic.

For example, the blue ones, when splashed, can cause severe cold damage, similar to liquid nitrogen. When thrown, they create a small-scale ice storm.

However, if thrown out together with that orange-red potion, it will have the effect of a wind blast. How to combine these "combat potions" to create various kinds of spell effects is a common combat skill for alchemists and arcane sorcerers.

The difficulty in manufacturing these combat potions is far lower than that of regular magic potions and combat elixirs; however, the difficulty in making them react in combination to form more complex and powerful magical effects is much higher.

After seeing the actual contents of these medicines, Leon finally felt a little relieved. As long as they weren't high explosives, everything was fine.

In addition to normal combat potions, Livia also instructed Roach to make several proper elixirs. The difference between elixirs and magic potions is that the former does not need to be drunk; instead, it simply needs to be opened and will evaporate on its own, allowing those around to enjoy its effects.

Its effects are weaker than magic potions, but it has the advantage of being usable by multiple people. Simply put, potions with prefixes like "group" or "wide range" in their names are considered elixirs, while those with prefixes like "higher" or "lower" are magic potions.

"Power Elixir," "Physique Elixir," and "Sharpness Elixir" are three commonly used basic elixirs. However, because they have a group effect and require automatic evaporation to form a medicinal mist, even with Livia's almost hands-on guidance, it still took a lot of materials to prepare them.

As for why we didn't prepare the medicine before bringing it in, the reason is simply that we don't have enough bottles to hold it all. Dried herbs and mineral powders don't take up as much space as these prepared liquid medicines. Besides, bringing too many bottles of medicine would cause them to rattle and collide with each other, which might accidentally activate the effects of the medicine when you don't need it.

Therefore, alchemists generally don't prepare everything beforehand. Instead, they carry some prepared tools and potions, and more often just refined and proportioned materials. As long as there's a place to light a fire and boil water, they can basically prepare the ingredients. Even in places where water can't be boiled, they can use simple mystical spells to gather steam and obtain the necessary solvent materials.

Since wine and spirits are common types of alchemical solvents, the team can also use the alcohol they carry to make their own. When not in use, it's just regular alcohol and can even be used as a disinfectant; when needed, drinking a little less won't kill you.

However, once it's made into a potion, you can't drink it like alcohol to reduce your weight anymore; this trick was taught to Roach by Leon.

"Gather all the equipment together." Roach had everyone gather their weapons and armor together, then opened a bottle of prepared Sharp Elixir. The pale golden liquid inside the bottle quickly boiled, and the wear and tear on the weapons and equipment healed at an astonishing speed. At the same time, it coated Alessina's two short swords and Leon's reforged Wolf Head Demon-Slaying Sword with an incomparably dim golden glow.

The Elixir of Sharpness can repair wear and tear on weapons and armor. At the same time, it applies the Sharpness spell to the weapon. The duration and strength of the effect are related to the degree of damage to the equipment. The more severe the wear and tear, the weaker the Sharpness spell effect and the shorter the duration.

After resting in the room for about half an hour, Livia recovered some of her strength. She hadn't reached her limit for the day, which was largely due to the presence of Leon as a tank along the way. She hadn't used much magic, so she hadn't consumed too much energy, and she also had a black horse as her mount.

Continuing down the tunnel on the right, passing through a grotto that twists and turns like the intestines of some creature, you arrive at a completely new area. Compared to the shallow area, this place even presents a unique courtyard style. Not to mention carved beams and painted pillars, at least the shapes of the buildings are already clearly visible.

The tunnels connecting the courtyard-like spaces no longer have openings on either side; instead, they are flat stone walls and Roman columns. However, the stone walls are still uneven, indicating that they were forcibly twisted by some mysterious force.

Here, some obvious decorative objects also begin to appear, such as stone platforms and small stone tables. These objects are so crude that they resemble children's toys, while the bottles, jars, and decorations placed on them look like the scraps made by novice potters.

"Water..." Livia poured a little water from a twisted and deformed jar, nodded to Roach, indicating that there was nothing wrong with the water, and then the group took out their water bags to replenish their fluids.

At the end of this enclosed corridor, where almost no stalactites are visible, stands another stone door, more refined than the one above, at least revealing the veins and vines of the plants on it.

“I don’t recognize it…” Livia carefully observed the vines and leaves and finally came to the conclusion that she didn’t recognize them. However, the little witch was not disappointed. Instead, she took out her notebook with great interest and quickly drew the shapes of these strange plants on it with a charcoal pencil. Then she wrote her annotations next to them.

"Crack!" The stone door creaked open inwards, and Leon and Alessina cautiously observed the scene inside. It was a U-shaped room, with a square space enclosed in the center by stone pillars of varying thicknesses. The top was inlaid with some kind of luminous crystal, and bright light shone on the square space in the center.

“These plants…” Roach frowned slightly. These plants had obvious characteristics of tropical plants, mainly ferns, as well as a considerable number of broad-leaved plants. Moreover, they were not fake objects formed from stones, but real plants.

“Not from nearby…” Leon nodded to Roach. It seemed that the two of them had noticed the same suspicious point: these plants were not from nearby. Therefore, they could not have been replicated based on nearby vegetation, but rather had another source.

Furthermore, since the sealed object has not yet demonstrated the ability to create living things, it is reasonable to speculate that these plants come from underground. Perhaps there is such vegetation underground, allowing the sealed object to extract these plants by manipulating mines and geological structures.

"Hmm, there's another possibility, which is that this thing is trying to swap... Maybe it's not really performing some kind of ritual, or attracting adventurers..." Exchanging the sealed underground palace with the mine in some way, thereby freeing itself to some extent? Or is this itself a ritual?

"Ah!" Livia clapped her hands, a look of surprise on her little face. Then she took out her notebook and started writing quickly. A few minutes later, she showed everyone her research results. Well, the hand-drawn illustration was cute, but no one could understand it. This made the little witch lower her head in disappointment. She continued to revise the paper and then showed everyone a simpler hand-drawn illustration.

Above is a black, furry thing with eyes, representing the sealed object. Around it are pillars and corridors representing the courtyard and the underground palace. Then, an arrow marks a mine shaft, which gradually transforms into the underground palace.

The seal, represented by a simple circle, transforms the outside world into an underground palace. It then extends a dark arm, grabs the edge of the circle, rotates it 180 degrees, and stands "outside" the circle, making a triumphant gesture.

"Ah, I see. It's trying to swap the inside and outside, then deceive the seal, so that the converted mine outside is sealed, while it itself is outside the seal." Roach was the quickest to understand. Isn't this just "shell reversal"?

First, remove this outer shell, then trick the seal into flipping over, making the outside become the inside, and the inside naturally become the outside. No matter how strong the remaining seal is, it will be meaningless to the sealed object.

So, those rock skeletons, rock monsters, and petrified demon trees might not have been summoned from the earth elemental realm, but rather originated from the original seal within the dungeon. It sent these things out through some kind of gap, completing the initial flip and deception, causing the seal to misjudge, and thus sending more things to the outside world, altering the internal and external situations.

And judging from this... "At least more than half of the dungeon has been replaced. We need to be careful now. Inside the sealed dungeon, there may not only be those rock monsters, but also... it may not have much time left before it escapes."

Leon's expression turned serious, but the little witch didn't seem to care much. Instead, she went to collect seeds and specimens of ferns she had never seen before. These colorful plants with sharp thorns and toxins were as docile as a house dog in her hands, allowing the witch to collect seeds, fruits, leaves, and even roots at will.

Chapter 391 The Underground Palace

"Ninety-one, ninety-two... ninety-nine, one hundred!" The girl's clear voice echoed repeatedly between the rock walls, finally stopping in front of a large door carved with flowers and vines. "It really is one hundred steps!" Lulua looked at the door in surprise. She was only about an arm's length away from the door, but such an error was basically negligible.

“Looks like I guessed right… This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, but a carefully designed one.” Roach was drawing a map of the underground corridors on a piece of paper. For him, this was practically a basic skill. “The corridors we just passed through were all the same length, and the rooms they connected to were all the same size.”

Even the structure is exactly the same, a U-shape, only the functions and furnishings of the central and outer spaces are different. The entrance is a small garden, where Livia collected some plants she had never seen before, and then, with the help of the witch's identification, everyone replenished their water supply from the irrigation pool on the side of the room.

During an adventure, water is far more important than food. Without food, one can maintain physical strength for a certain period of time by relying on their own fat reserves, but without water, one will quickly become dehydrated and weak.

Therefore, when you encounter a reliable and clean water source during an adventure, it is best to fill all the water containers, because you don't know where the next water source is, especially whether the next water source is drinkable.

"Glug~" Leon lifted his mask, took a big gulp of water, and then wiped the sweat off his face with a dry cloth. "Garden, reception room, some kind of office. This doesn't look like a special seal. It looks more like a real underground palace."

“Yes, but it’s not a palace for the living. Excluding the possibility that the seal wasn’t completely replaced, this is some kind of Ming Palace.” Roach nodded. As a true professional gravedigger, he felt something was off as soon as he entered this level. Now he could confirm that this was a Ming Palace (underworld palace), the kind used for burial of the dead.

"You mean, this is a giant tomb?" Because this world lacks a unified empire (the current Stoll Empire is also a semi-fragmented entity like the Holy Roman Empire), there are no super-large-scale underground cemeteries. Most underground cemetery labyrinths refer to public cemeteries like the Catacombs of Paris.

Then the tombs of nobles and kings are also relatively large, but they are only a structure consisting of 3 to 4 burial chambers. The main hall in the center is where the merits are recorded and where the descendants can worship. The burial chambers on the left and right sides are for funerary objects, and the rear is where the coffin is placed.

Moreover, tombs of this size were usually reserved for legendary or important figures within a family, while ordinary collateral branches and family members were buried around these small, house-like tombs.

This was the first time Roach had ever discovered such a large-scale underworld palace in this world, with an oriental scale or style. It was even much larger than the one on Earth, and it was estimated that only something like the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor could be compared to it—both of which were tombs built using mountains as their burial grounds.

“If I’m not mistaken, the people or race that built this palace have a tradition of treating the dead as if they were alive. In their eyes, death and rebirth are the same thing. They believe that they will be resurrected in the world after death and enjoy the same life and treatment as before they were alive.” Roach observed the structure around the gate and a small map drawn on a piece of paper.

"Therefore, they would build such huge palaces so that they would not be without servants or palace utensils after death. As for why it became a sealing place, that's complicated."

Just like on Earth, archaeologists discovered that an ancient tomb had been robbed. When they went down into the tomb, they found that the tomb robbers had already robbed it by earlier tomb robbers and then abandoned it. In the end, the tools and traces left by the tomb robbers became part of the archaeological artifacts.

This comical scene was nothing new to Luo Qi. There had even been cases of four or five nesting dolls, and tombs containing the remains of unfortunate tomb raiders from different eras, hundreds of years apart. Well, those tomb raiders had become a kind of cultural relic.

"You mean this place was perhaps discovered by some adventurers or tomb raiders, and then later discovered by the church or some other force for some reason, and used to seal this 'Earth Calamity'?"

Alessina was somewhat speechless. Orcs and beastmen-demi-humans did not have this kind of funeral culture. Commoners were usually cremated after death and their ashes were turned into a small box. After all, most orcs were nomads, and it was easier to carry their ashes.

Nobles were also cremated, but some of their ashes and burial goods were buried in the ground, and a flagpole covered with stones was erected outside.

As for the beastmen, the situation is more complicated. Customs vary considerably from place to place. In Alasina's hometown, the custom is water burial. The person is placed on a small boat made of thick paper and glue, and then when the wind picks up, it is placed in the bay and carried away by the waves and sea breeze. When it reaches the open sea, the paper and glue soften and corrode, and when the waves hit, it disintegrates, and the person and burial goods sink to the bottom of the water.

As for the burial items, they are mostly paper or pottery items of daily necessities or weapons and tools used by the deceased during their lifetime. Occasionally, some fruits and incense flowers will also be placed on the grave.

"I simply cannot understand what you humans are doing. Since things will be stolen anyway, why build such a large cemetery and put so many things in it? Wouldn't it be better to let the living use it? It will end up like this anyway."