Witch Troupe and the Undead

Countless arcs of electricity spread in all directions, each arc being a bolt of lightning-attribute energy. Their power was not great, only equivalent to the penetrating power of a regular military bow and arrow and a certain amount of elemental damage.

However, for vampire bats that still retain flesh and a small amount of vitality, being touched by an electric arc causes the electric arc to jump on their fur, and the instantaneous muscle spasm causes them to fall from the sky in pieces. Some land on the roof of the city's shield and turn into ashes, while others land on the battlefield.

For the defenders, these bats falling from the sky were a godsend. All they had to do was step on their bellies to prevent them from turning over, and their short necks would prevent them from biting anyone or anything.

Then he stabbed his chest with a spear, shredded his heart, and threw it into a nearby cremation pit protected by a magical barrier.

There are three types of alchemical materials found on these bats. The first is their vampire fangs, which can be used to create the potion "Blood Poison." The second is their wings, used to create the "Flame Wand." The third is their droppings, used to create the "Night Vision Potion." However, after being burned, only the first material can be recycled; the latter two are completely destroyed.

The purpose of the Blood Potion is to treat blood poisoning. When Roach registered as an alchemist, he learned about the prices and costs of some commonly used alchemical products. Blood poisoning is a special symptom caused by blood. Roach felt that it was somewhat similar to the "three highs"—high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and high blood sugar, which caused blood vessel blockage.

In modern hospitals, besides treatment and vascular stenting, there aren't many good options for this. Medication only treats the symptoms and needs to be changed frequently, otherwise the body will develop drug resistance. But in this other world, there's a near-permanent "magic potion" that cures the problem directly from the root. The principle behind this is something even Roach finds somewhat incomprehensible, much like how to deal with obesity?

Humans have many drugs, medical treatments, and sports methods available, but some people choose to put a controlled hungry ghost inside their bodies to consume all the excess nutrients.

"Not bad alchemical weaponry, really not bad." Karius's expression finally improved. Roach's [Iron Tree Silver Flower] had very low power; it mainly relied on the paralysis and shock effects of the electric energy arrows to shoot down the target. The rest was left to the infantry, although Roach's initial idea was to let gravity handle the rest.

To everyone's surprise, these undead-like bats, which had turned into demons, didn't die from the fall from that height; it was almost too magical.

However, the bats were merely bait to disrupt the enemy's formation. The real legion of the dead from the Black Abyss Graveyard had already arrived at the outer perimeter of the position. The torchlight gradually dimmed under the eerie chill, and the faint light outlined an army with fluttering banners and bright armor in front of the position.

"..." Karius slammed his fist on the battlements. He had suspected that there were high-level undead controlling these undead, otherwise such a tactical arrangement would not have been possible, although high-level undead tactics were mostly at the level of F2A.

However, no matter what, the pressure on the defending troops is vastly different whether these tireless and fearless creatures rush forward in a chaotic swarm to be shelled, or whether they form orderly formations and even execute small coordinated attacks and tactics.

"what is this?"

"The Black Abyss Legion..." An elite legion of the Kingdom of Gurust, the source of the undead monsters in the lower levels of the Black Abyss Cemetery. Now Roach and Karius know how the Deathwhisper Fortress fell, and now Hearthglen may very well follow the same path as the Deathwhisper Fortress.

With a resounding crash, a skeleton warrior, clad in armor made of black iron bones, stepped forward, his right hand resting a short spear on a large, square shield. The shield's wood was completely rotten, yet death magic swirled around it, forming a wailing face.

"Ancient undead warriors..." The adventurers on the battlefield began to tremble. These monsters were of standard danger level, and in groups they were of threat level. If they were led by a death knight, they would be of panic level.

Not only because they retain some of their combat skills from their previous lives, but also because their bones have been thoroughly eroded or strengthened by the magic of the source of death, making them incredibly hard; even a blunt weapon wielded by a normal person would have difficulty breaking them in one blow.

Not to mention the psychological pressure of them silently closing in step by step as they lined up neatly, and the widespread mental damage caused by the wails on those "howling shields," which caused some militiamen to drop their weapons and run away, only to have their heads chopped off by the supervisory team and their bodies kicked into the cremation pit.

"Light the trenches and retreat to the city!" Faced with this, maintaining the outer positions was pointless. The sergeant threw alchemical bombs into the trenches, and raging flames rose up, turning into several walls of fire that covered the entire position. The catapults also continuously launched large fire pots into the front of the position, forming clusters of burning flames.

An instinctive aversion to fire and heat caused these ancient undead warriors to slowly halt their advance. The undead are always extremely patient; the living may become lax, tired, and wavering, but they will not.

Those precious spirit crystals were left abandoned on the battlefield, along with the catapults and wooden towers that were not easy to move. However, before retreating, the knights destroyed these tools to prevent the undead from using them to attack the city walls, and also lit the remaining fire pots that could not be taken with them.

The abundant flames also allowed the mages on the city walls to draw upon the power of the fire element. These elements transformed into fist-sized orbs of light that floated above the defensive towers on the city walls, like a cluster of dancing fireflies.

"Close the city gates!" The double-layered wooden and iron city gates closed, followed by two iron railings cast from alchemical alloy and engraved with runes against magical attacks, which crashed down to form the second defensive structure.

The large, rectangular metal plates on the city wall also lit up with bright runes. These processed anti-magic armors could further resist the intrusion of necromantic magic into the city, and also resist the death-source spells that the Black Abyss mages might cast.

The purplish-black tide gradually overwhelmed the still-burning walls of fire, flowed through the burning trenches, and extinguished the clusters of fiercely burning cremation pits, leaving only a thick, murky purple expanse outside the city.

Amidst the murky purple, specks of frosty white shone. "Arrow protection!" As the folded arrow protection sign was opened atop the city wall, the silent zombie archer drew back the great bow, its arms made of bones and its strings of blood and tendons.

Arrows made of bones ignited with clusters of cold flames, which then transformed into a barrage of meteors that crashed down on the city walls.

After the white bone arrows pierced through the city wall barrier, they could still penetrate deeply into the wooden arrow shields covered with iron. The cold fire could not ignite anything, but it could quickly cover the wounds with white frost. Even heavily armored knights would be harmed by this chilling cold that struck their very souls.

"Click!" Roach, expressionless, placed the things he was carrying on the city wall. Beside him, Leslie, sweating profusely, carried over a square wooden box containing stacks of metal boxes. "Now you're my second gunner. Loading ammunition is your responsibility!"

With one hand on the Secret Essence Jar atop the long metal cylinder and the other gripping the wooden handle, Luo Qi fired 64 secondary energy arrows in just over a second, accompanied by a whooshing sound. He then snapped the bottom latch with his right hand, sending the frontmost metal box to the ground. With a push of the side lever, a gap appeared on the top of the second-layer metal box, near the end.

“Like this?” Leslie grabbed a new metal box filled with regular square metal pieces, like a stamp album, and inserted it into the empty space at the end.

"Yes!" Dozens of secondary energy arrows were launched rapidly towards the undead legion outside the city at intervals of two or three seconds. Roach didn't bother to check the effects; after all, these healing arrows powered by life essence were practically curse arrows to the undead.

The combination of mystical and physical damage means that even zombies with tough skin and muscles can take significant damage. However, the energy arrow rain was originally a basic mystical technique used by mystical sorcerers to distract enemies and practice. After being transformed into secondary energy arrows, its power became extremely weak.

But what was that saying again? Even with scraping, if I scrape fast enough, I can peel off a layer of skin. Undead warriors kept falling, their bodies riddled with metal shards. The conflict generated by the life essence in the areas hit caused their bones and withered muscles to completely rot and disintegrate, resulting in gruesome deaths.

If this were a human army, their morale would probably have collapsed. But with the undead legion, they simply crossed the trenches in silence, extinguished the campfires, and slowly approached the city walls. The undead that hadn't been completely burned and were awakened piled up layer by layer at the bottom, forming a slope that gradually approached the top of the city.

"Spell!" "City defense cannon!" A large number of brick-like objects made of sintered metal slag were projected into the air. The pre-set explosive runes turned them into a torrent of molten iron that poured down on them. In a sense, it was genuine liquid gold.

The scorching metal hissed as it came into contact with the rotting flesh, and the cold, putrid stench in the air was replaced by a strange, acrid smell. The Mystic Mages manipulated the molten metal to form blades and spears that pierced through the charging undead monsters.

However, a significant portion of these attacks were blocked by their skeletal armor and howling shields. Despite their formidable presence, just like Roach's weapons, very few undead monsters fell. Instead, the newly resurrected, fragile zombies and burning corpses fell in droves under Roach's machine gun fire, like fields of wheat being cut down.

"The Minion Scrubber" Roach glanced at the dwindling ammunition and nodded. That's the good thing about the Mystic Source Sorcerers; as long as they have plenty of "ammunition," they can fight you anywhere until the end of time, until even the Great Dao is obliterated.

Whether it's an alchemist's magical artifacts or a ritual mage's, once the environment's magic power is completely drained and it enters a "dry tide" state, their combat power will not be higher than that of a goose. However, even in a true "dry tide," a source mage can calmly pull out a piece of source essence to activate a large number of paradigms and continue magical exchanges or one-sided bombardment.

"Green energy is good, but I still prefer heat engines~" Luo Qi muttered to himself as he packed his things to make a run for it. These esoteric mages were using what seemed like green energy, which had the advantages of being clean, readily available, and easy to use, but its drawback was that it was unstable. Once the environment changed, the output would drop sharply.

Mystic Warlocks are like various heat engines; as long as there is coal, oil, or other fuel, they can continuously and steadily output energy.

"Prepare to engage the enemy!" Undead warriors have already appeared in several places on the city wall. These monsters with bronze heads and iron bones often require four or five soldiers to barely surround and hold one back. Even knights with extraordinary martial arts skills that surpass the limits of human physique and explosive power find it difficult to win quickly in one-on-one situations.

The entire city wall was engulfed in a fierce battle, and at this moment, Roach prepared to run away. Why? As a sorcerer, he had run out of ammunition. Was he really going to fight these things hand-to-hand with the fragile, thin metal tubes in his hands? Didn't he see that the knights' iron maces were having little effect?

No one on the battlefield questioned Roach's escape, because he was dressed as an alchemist, and everyone had seen the continuous rain of missiles. By now, he had probably used up all the enchantment effects of his magical artifacts. Having an alchemist on the battlefield would only be a hindrance.

The Fairy House Kitchen

"Aa ...

Livia's cooking skills can only be described as...torture-level, whether it's for Titania who's teaching or for those who're tasting the food.

"Ugh~" The little girl lowered her head, looking somewhat dejected. Her fair face was covered in flour and raw materials. Her finished product was a spherical substance that emitted a subtle smell and had a metallic sheen on its surface. The only consolation was that, perhaps because the witch had personally put in a lot of effort, the dumpling started moving on its own.

Before it could grow muscular arms and legs, Livia threw it into the furnace and burned it completely.

"Young Miss, something seems to have happened over at the city wall," a black horse's head peered through the window, uttering a telepathic message only Livia could hear. "Shouldn't we be leaving? As for that useless guard, let him bravely cover your retreat!"

"Boom!"

"Thump, thump, thump!" The rolling pin pounded on the horse's head like a wooden fish. Livia was very angry and hit the old horse's head hard. It had no sense of companionship and had to be punished!

"Alright then, I'll have to show you what I'm capable of." Old Ma took a step back and then silently disappeared out the window.

"That horse... is it here to steal food? It must have suffered a lot in the past, right?" Titania looked at the old horse, which was gloomy and desolate, with pity on her face. Even such a failed work that could not be called a failure had to steal food? She wondered what kind of mistreatment and torture it had been subjected to in the past.

Old Ma left the kitchen window and disappeared into the shadows. The busy people on the street didn't notice that among the shadows, the shadow of a nimble horse quickly leaped from one person's shadow to another.

In mysticism, a shadow represents a person's subconscious, and the world constructed by the subconscious is the dream world. For the Nightmare Demon, this was the first time it had been able to so freely race through human dreams and minds. However, compared to the Shadow Realm, the distance in the real world was too narrow. It was only a warm-up before Old Ma appeared at the foot of the city wall.

"This won't do..." The magnificent black horse attracted a lot of attention when it entered the city.

It's important to know that large livestock like horses and cattle are quite expensive. Roach rents a horse and pays a deposit of nearly 20 gold coins, while treating Livia to a good meal only costs 15 silver coins, which is roughly equivalent to a little over 1 gold coin.

For many knights, a good horse can be so valuable that it could bankrupt them. This old horse, which looks like a fine warhorse, would probably have been sold to many knights by force if it weren't for the intimidation of Livia's arcane triangular badge.

The black fur gradually faded, turning into a dull, withered yellow. The sick horse, with almost no fur left, listlessly carried weapons and arrows as it slowly walked up the city wall along the horse path, attracting no attention.

"The undead, ah, a familiar scent... the scent of conspiracy." As a demon, it smelled the thick "scent of great sin" in the air.

"Now, let's put an end to these tedious formalities~" Old Ma issued a challenge to a certain being in the undead army in the language and manner of a demon. As if he had lost control in fright, Old Ma crashed into the undead skeletons that had been piled up to almost level with the city wall on the slope of white bones and grave soil, and quickly disappeared into the shadows and smoke.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Let this old man shed this lowly skin~

In the center of the undead army formation, a rift twisted and turned in the clouds. Around the rift, a strange man wearing a black hood chanted a long sacrificial prayer in a low voice. Every purple lightning bolt that struck out from the rift was attracted by the hexagonal pillars made of human skeletons, tombstones, and black iron around it, and was guided into the ground along the skeletons.

When lightning strikes, countless howling ghosts emerge from the skeletons, and drops of bloody tears slide down their surfaces. Then, the ground around the pillars cracks open, and pale skeletal warriors and withered, wrinkled zombies crawl out of thin air from the fissures.

"The defenses of Hearth City are far stronger than I thought." Claws encased in black iron armor snatched a half-rotten head from the ground. All facial features had been gouged out, and a few strands of dry hair remained on the top of the head. Judging from the bones exposed under the skin, it belonged to a child no more than 12 years old.

"Crack!" The decaying head shattered in his palm. "A guest has arrived." Two pale flames flickered beneath the black armor. The giant, over four meters tall, nodded slightly to the silent gray-cloaked figure beside him. "Let me go and greet him."

"No need." A shadow darted swiftly among the many shadows on the ground, finally stopping in the shadow cast by the skeletal pillar. The shadow rose up like water, transforming into a black horse with black hair and white mane.

“Let’s ignore all this formality~” Old Ma looked around, a nostalgic expression on his face. “Tsk, still such terrible taste. I hate you third-level people. You’re always doing these useless rituals, and your taste is so vulgar.”

"An unlucky fellow summoned to the mortal realm? This is quite an eye-opener." The armored giant reached out and pulled a massive blade as wide as an iron pillar from the side, his left hand wreathed in specks of purplish-black ghostly fire. "Was it your master who sent you?"

"No," Old Ma said, "Actually, I really wanted to urge you to attack faster, preferably to kill that kid on the city wall, but the young lady said no. Besides, if the young lady sees your taste, she will misunderstand our sixth floor. So, I have no choice but to take care of you." Old Ma shook his fur.

"Oh~ I almost forgot, let this old man remove this lowly hide for now..." The horse hide was torn open, and pitch-black demonic fire spewed out from the crack like smoke, transforming into a group of horse-shaped monsters several meters tall, composed entirely of black smoke, demonic fire, and shadows, with six scarlet eyes arranged in a hexagonal pattern on their heads staring intently at the other party.

Drops of silvery-white smoke appeared on its hooves and back, turning into blazing silver flames that formed its mane and hooves. On the neck of this terrifying monster, a yoke made of extremely dense golden runes was tightly wedged into its body, constantly clashing with the demonic fire and producing intense crackling sounds.

"Hmm?" Livia, who was making new handmade desserts, frowned slightly. It seemed that she had been communicating with someone remotely for some time before she mumbled something and touched the back of her hand. The dense runic yoke immediately disappeared into her body.

The horse-shaped monster gradually rose upright, its limbs transforming into sharp claws. Countless illusory human faces formed gray-white gauntlets and leg armor on its wrists and ankles. "Ah~ How comfortable! I should thank you third-level trash for allowing me to breathe freely for a bit. I won't let you die too quickly, do you agree? Third-level Corpse Demon General..." The armored giant took two steps back, its pale demonic fire flickering rapidly in its eyes. It changed its stance from holding a blade with one hand to two, appearing as if it were facing a formidable enemy.

"Come on, let's go somewhere else and have some fun. Let these mortals handle this." Old Ma snapped his fingers, and the shadow instantly devoured the demon general, also freezing the rift. No matter how much those cult-like guys knelt, prayed, and tried, the rift was just an illusory shadow.

In the Shadow Realm, a reflection of human spirit and dreams, a two-handed greatsword enveloped in black demonic flames clashed rapidly, sparking tiny black sparks. Compared to the latter's pillar-like shape, this two-handed sword appeared rather slender, resembling a rapier in the hands of the horse-headed monster.

"These guys in the Bone Realm, they don't practice their martial arts anymore, do they?" The horse-headed monster dealt with the demon general's frenzied attacks with a bored expression. "They're so crude, so ugly." The greatsword twisted and transformed into a short spear, accurately deflecting the giant blade that was slashing at him, and then thrust it into the demon general's chest with a backhand.

The demon general struggled violently, his armor creaking and rattling as if something was frantically absorbing it from his body. In the end, only a pile of metal armor remained on the ground.

"Disgusting..." Old Ma shook his head, glanced at the armor on the ground, his scarlet eyes flashing with bloodlust. He extended his claws and gathered the armor pieces together. "Only this hide is worth anything. With some alterations, I can wear it as a vest."

"Hmm~ Miss should be almost done too." Old Ma transformed into a black flame and disappeared into the shadow realm.

In the present world, "My lord, the Hell Rift is completely unusable. No matter what we do... it has no effect." The rift sealed by the sub-lord of the sixth layer is not something that these rift mages or hell mages can open. The so-called sub-lord refers to hell monsters whose strength or rank has reached the lord level, but who are not lords.

Some of them lack sufficient power to challenge the Hell Lords and become true lords, while others are too cowardly and weak. There is also a significant gap between lord-level monsters. Many sub-lord-level monsters are no match for true Hell Lords at all—because equipment is also a part of strength!

Old Ma was such a sub-lord. The reason he didn't challenge the Dream Lord of the sixth level was that he simply couldn't beat him, and would even be instantly killed in one round. The reason he couldn't beat him was... the opponent was covered in jewels. Old Ma could tell with his own tail hair what would happen if he, a penniless wretch, rushed up against him. He would be instantly killed.

"Poor, so poor~ Are all the demon generals on the third level this poor now? They don't even carry any money when they go out!" Old Ma said, quickly traversing the Shadow Realm while examining the unfortunate fellow's belongings. "Not even a single soul coin. If you're this poor, why are you even here for tourism in the mortal world? Why don't you go to the Styx Realm and do some work!"

Meanwhile, in Hearthstone, a large number of undead monsters had rushed up the city walls and were fiercely fighting the defenders. Under the suppression of the barrier, the humans were barely able to withstand the onslaught of these undead. Karius was covered in bits of flesh and blood, some from his corrupted allies and some from the ever-growing number of undead monsters.

On the rooftop of the Arcane Twin Towers, specks of silver flame rose. The only Star Silver-rank arcane mage in Hearthglen summoned a large number of Mind Flames. Each Mind Flame could directly attack the fragmented and fragile souls of these undead monsters. However, each Mind Flame was frantically consuming the essence stored within the towers.

A sorcerer's mana bar comes from the environment, meaning that to store enough mana for spellcasting, one must construct large structures like arcane towers. These structures are impossible to carry around and have an astonishing waste rate, much like a dam storing water. Only one or two out of ten stored mana units might be usable. However, the arcane mana stored over the years is now coming in handy.

At the same time, the church doors were open, and the priests guided the residents to concentrate on prayer, their spiritual power converging into an ocean of spiritual mystic energy, further empowering the Mystic Tower.

In this world, there is almost no mention of street fighting or meat grinders. The fall of the city walls means that at least the entire outer city has fallen, because before entering the street fighting, the residents' energy and spirit have been almost completely drained by the arcane tower, and they simply do not have any extra courage and spirit to fight the invaders.

As for how long the inner city can hold out, that depends on how much secret essence is stored in the inner city's castle and how many extraordinary knights still have combat power and stamina.

"General, we're about to lose!" The Arcane Tower has reached its maximum output, and this output can only be maintained for a short time. "Prepare to retreat into the inner city!" Karius hardened his heart. Once they retreat into the inner city, it means that all the residents of the outer city will be abandoned and they will become a new undead army. But this way, at least they can buy time and restrain these undead monsters, preventing them from spreading.

Then it's just a matter of seeing when the Empire sends new reinforcements. Karius doesn't have much hope for it, but considering the old emperor's relatively diligent efforts, it's still a glimmer of hope.

"Whoosh!" Old Ma unloaded a large bag of things onto the ground, shaking it as he did so. "Where did you steal this from?!" Leslie, who had just returned, looked at the armor on the ground with surprise on her face. Where did this old man steal the armor from?

“This is…” Roach crouched down, a movement that made Old Ma’s expression tense. “Knight’s armor?”

“Ugly…” Livia lightly kicked the dark armor on the ground.

“It can be modified, Miss. Didn’t you say you wanted to make beautiful armor and clothes? This is perfect for practice.” Old Ma said in the telepathic voice.

"Yes!" The little girl clenched her fist tightly, her eyes showing a determined look.

"General, does the Sky of the Dead look a little dimmer?" Exhausted, Karius felt that the surroundings seemed to have brightened. He looked up at the sky and saw the pale purple Sky of the Dead floating in the sky. This color meant that most of the undead had been wiped out.

"Alright! These undead monsters are about to run out of energy. Everyone, conserve your strength. Victory will be ours soon!" The shouts echoed through the crowd as everyone gritted their teeth and squeezed out their last bit of willpower and spirit to hold the top of the wall.

As the veil of the dead thinned, some of the newly resurrected corpses that were too fragile fell down or became extremely sluggish, and fallen comrades would not easily transform into new undead monsters.

"It only reached the level of resurrected warriors?" Karius breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he didn't encounter any troublesome creatures like organized groups of Abyss Mages and Bone Warriors. He had thought he would encounter at least seven or eight of them.

Having lost the means to replenish the rift and discovering that the seal could not be broken, the mysterious hell mages had no choice but to give up, try to close the rift and escape. After all, if even the Corpse Demon General summoned by sacrificing the lives of countless believers could be easily dealt with, then staying here would only mean waiting to die.

However, neither these cultists and hell mages nor their masterminds could understand why a strange nightmare demon would appear here. Could it be attracted by the rift? It couldn't be that there just happened to be a hell lord in Hearthstone City, could it?

Nobody wants to have their spirit devoured by a nightmare demon in their sleep, turning them into a living corpse (vegetative state). If they don't leave now, are they going to wait for the other party to finish the main course and come back to enjoy their dessert?

As the new sun rose, after a night of fierce fighting, the last undead finally fell in the morning sunlight with a mournful cry. Everywhere on the outskirts and outer districts of the city, billowing black smoke and corpses littered the ground. Fresh bodies and decaying bones were piled up intertwined, emitting a terrifying stench.

The entire city seemed to be completely permeated by the stench of corpses, which even the billowing black smoke and the raging flames in the arcane furnace could not dispel. The residents looked listless, barely managing to muster the last bit of their spirit and strength to help the church members clean up the corpses on the streets and throw them into several newly dug cremation pits on the outskirts of the city.

They used flaming glue and kerosene to ignite the bodies and burn them completely. Around each cremation pit stood four priests dressed in white robes and wearing tall crowns, loudly praising the gods and guiding divine power to transform into a blazing holy fire that thoroughly burned and purified the corpses.

Because the ceremony was lengthy and required a considerable amount of incense and silver powder, only nobles would arrange such a ceremony to ensure that their ancestors would not crawl out of the family cemetery. Commoners were not qualified, and the church did not have enough resources to carry out such purification and burning.

Of course, right now is a time when the Church is bleeding money. Other countries can tolerate the Church's status and its transcendent and independent military power because when faced with large-scale monster invasions, fierce wars, or other situations that result in a lot of deaths and are prone to plagues and undead calamities, the Church is really needed to clean up the mess.

Even after the Scourge of the Dead ended, the Church still had to clean up the mess. Otherwise, if two ghouls jumped out of the mass graves every few days, even the city lord couldn't stand it!

The ashes after cremation are collected by the church, mixed with holy water, and buried under the church. These ashes, burned with holy fire, are used by the church to enhance the church's sacred power and to suppress the corpses in the cemetery behind it from rising up.

The militiamen responsible for cleaning up the battlefield collected the items from the corpses and piled them on carts. The surviving adventurers were also sorting out the remains and belongings of their companions. The remains were cremated and then handed over to the church or buried on the spot. As for the belongings, after deducting half to three-quarters, the rest were returned to the companions' families.

Of course, if the companions get along very well, they may return everything and recruit new companions in the process.

"Thud!" A broken sword pierced the soil. Mercenaries also had their own way of commemorating their comrades. The broken weapons formed a circle, and each weapon was hung with a token of a comrade or companion. No one would break this unique ritual, nor would anyone be interested in these broken and irreparable weapons that could only be melted down.

Until they completely decay and rust, these things called mercenary rings can be seen on the ancient battlefields of every battle with heavy casualties, and the tokens hanging on them are not valuable. Cartloads of spoils are brought into the city, and these bloodstained items need to be cleaned and purified to remove the death magic they are contaminated with before they can be used for auctions and rewards.

“Master Roach, thank you so much for your help.” Karius nodded to Roach and handed over the bag in his hand. “This is your payment, and Miss Livia’s as well.”