Witch Troupe and the Undead

"At that time, it didn't matter. After all, even if we didn't meet, we couldn't hide it. Rather than making her worry, it was better to meet her. She's not... well, the kind of person who likes to gossip."

"Even if the church wanted revenge, it wouldn't target her. Besides... even if this matter were exposed, the church wouldn't do something like that for such a small amount of money. If I'm really dead, then there's no need; if I'm not dead..."

Leon gave a somewhat naive smile, but everyone understood what he meant. If he hadn't died, and a Grand Knight Commander were to seek revenge, the Church might not have been able to withstand it, at the very least the priest who did it would definitely not have been able to hold out.

"What about the explosion in the capital? And the cathedral incident?"

"...I suddenly realized, if I'm with the infamous Explosion Sage, do you think they'll suspect who did this?"

"..." Previously, Leon didn't know the background of Roach and his group, nor the true value of the Explosion Sage, which is why he chose this scheme to scam compensation and escape from that mess. Now that he knows—it's impossible not to know, he experienced the underground palace firsthand! So, for the Church and the Empire, whose responsibility is this more likely to be?

"I..." Roach almost cursed, "You're really something else!"

"What did you mean by that phrase you used to say, Roach? Oh, a person's name is a tree's shadow. You're a towering tree now," Leslie added, delivering another jab.

"..." Livia patted his head, then puffed out her little chest, as if to say, "It's okay, I'm here for you~".

[PS]

That ointment is based on a genuine medieval European formula. As for its effectiveness, I can only say it's better than bloodletting and wood ash. It's not a placebo, but the effect is only temporary; how much, you'll have to figure out for yourself.

The actual recipe is: melted lard as a base, add yarrow leaf/flower powder and plantain powder, then add prepared St. John's wort oil and medicinal spring tea powder as needed, and simmer over low heat to obtain the final product.

Chapter 410 Why didn't you say so sooner?

The sunset painted the sky a deep red, and the green wheat fields rippled like waves. A few sparrows landed on the scarecrow's shoulder, watching their surroundings warily. A pig farmer drove a group of fat, black pigs out of the woods, and two young hunters, accompanied by hunting dogs and carrying several rabbits and squirrels, chatted and laughed as they headed toward the town gate.

The windmill creaked and groaned as it turned, but since it wasn't harvest season, there were hardly any people coming and going.

The place appeared peaceful and serene; at least according to Leon's observational skills, he didn't detect any existing or potential danger. But it was precisely because of this that he looked at Roach with a nervous expression, "Master, let me check first, is there anything wrong here?"

Why are you asking me?

"Mainly because I asked Leslie about it, and some things are just too strange, so I have to believe it." There are already as many as five towns directly under Roach's control, not counting those indirectly. On the first day he went out with the witch, they encountered a lizardman attack. Although Wind Candle Village was not destroyed, he could guess what would happen if more than 5% of the farmland were burned.

And the territory of Anta, which we stopped at before, was also burned by war. The Anta lord became even richer. This is really too strange. Although Leon knows that the people in the Imperial Cathedral are good at everything except exorcising evil spirits, even the Imperial Cathedral can't suppress your influence. That's really strange.

"..." Even the skeptical Luo Qi couldn't help but start to reflect. Everywhere he went seemed to be littered with corpses? No! When he was on the train before, Fangqiu Town was fine!

"You mean, of the seven or eight towns we stopped in along the way, only one survived!?" Leon had only been joking, but now he had to believe it. He looked around with worry and even began to consider whether to take these people to his sister's house—the title "Explosion Sage" might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the title "Calamity Star" was definitely accurate.

"How could a jinx be possible..." Luo Qi was about to retort when his expression suddenly froze. In the sunset, a black dot was growing larger and larger, and its outstretched wings clearly resembled those of a giant dragon. Could it be? Was an evil dragon about to attack?

Leon also saw the dragon approaching and decisively drew his two-handed sword. Almost simultaneously, the town's alarm bells rang, and guards holding spears stood trembling on the towers, watching the dragon draw closer. Everyone hoped the dragon was simply passing by, but just seconds later, they gave up hope as it began to fold its wings and swoop down.

"Whoosh~" The gray-white dragon passed through the rosy light, and the air currents whistled past under its wings. Vilandella landed lightly on the edge of the farmland. The dragon's wings folded and closed, and the scales on its body emitted a faint light. They quickly collapsed inward and finally turned into a quiet girl with black hair and two braids.

“Phew, you guys are really hard to catch. By the way, what’s going on in the capital? I saw it’s almost turned into a huge lake within the city.” Vilandella looked at Roach, then unloaded the large bag from her back. “Your bonuses cost me a lot of time and energy haggling with those old elf bastards!”

"How much?" "Five thousand gold coins plus some materials. They've been arguing for weeks just about who pays." Vilandella took out several money bags filled with elven gold coins. These exceptionally fine gold coins were infused with a small amount of Tree of Life magic during minting, making their value relatively stable. Officially, they were worth three times the normal Imperial gold coins, but on the black market, they were worth about five times.

Elven gold coins are not round, but have a leaf-shaped structure with pointed ends. They weigh about 30% more than Imperial gold coins and have a gold content that is 15% to 20% higher.

Livia gave Vilandella a warm hug, while the latter seemed a little flustered. She was curious about Leon and Lulua, who were now in the group, but all she wanted to do was eat something, drink some water, and get a good night's sleep.

"My things are all here. I'm going to take a nap. I really can't take it anymore." Long-haul flights are already exhausting, not to mention having to find someone to help.

As for the town, Leslie was tasked with explaining. The mermaid explained that she was a shapeshifter from the Imperial Academy, not a real dragon. After showing the academy's insignia, she successfully fooled these people who had never seen many spellcasters in their lives. With the old knight's help, the town quickly returned to peace.

“These are moon silver ingots from the elves, and these are ‘dragon bones’ that the dragons have dug up.” The dragon bones used in forging are not real dragon skeletons, but fossil materials mutated by the dragons’ magic and breath in the area where the dragons live. Roach understands them as a special kind of coal.

This material is also known as "Dragon Vein Carbon." Adding it during forging can greatly enhance the magical properties of flames and imbue the forged product with random attribute effects, usually one of cold, fire, lightning, or sharpness, though the effect is relatively weak.

"Oh, there are a few more dragon teeth here. These are real dragon teeth." Not all dragon teeth can be used as forging materials. They need to be kept close to the body and constantly transformed by the dragon's own magic to gradually turn them into a metal-like structure, thus making them suitable for forging.

"These books are copies of the Sages' Conference, Miss. You should like them more, right?"

"Mmm!" The little one's face was flushed, and it was clear that she really liked these new magic books, mainly those covering her weaknesses, such as spellbooks on otherworldly and elemental domains.

That's right. Elemental domains and summoning-type otherworldly domains are actually Livia's weaknesses. Nierleli's greatest strengths are life and void domains, followed by spirit and soul domains, while her elemental domains are only at the level of a normal archmage.

This also means that Livia doesn't have many powerful offensive elemental spells. She only learned the Giant God Spell because her teacher stole a lot of magic books. As for the Otherworld Domain, neither she nor her teacher is good at it.

"...I think those old devils have ill intentions..." Roach glanced at the grimoire in the witch's hand, his eye twitching slightly. Although he didn't understand magic or arcane arts, he understood the words on it.

A magic book that dares to say "Apocalypse of Natural Disasters" on its cover is definitely not a basic spell. It will either have an extremely high ritual cost, be extremely difficult, or be something you might only encounter a few times in your life that you might need to use.

“You guessed right. The council argued about these magic books for a long time, but we have to thank you for it.” Vilandella patted Roach’s shoulder hard. “Those old ghosts gave in after they heard what you did in the Black Abyss Cemetery and Luster Royal City.”

"They think the magic on this is less dangerous than you, and even think that if you use more of the magic on this instead of your plan, it will cause less damage to the safety of the continent."

The most powerful spell here is an elemental annihilation field with a radius of three kilometers. The creator of this spell proudly named it "Creation," meaning to transform all things into the primordial chaos of the four elemental magic storms, just like at the beginning of creation.

However, it only destroys the elemental effect within a radius of three kilometers, and the physical damage radius is only a little over 300 meters. Although the effect of "Elemental Singularity" is enough to turn the ground into molten lava and scorched earth and the air into a storm plasma cloud, compared to the elemental spell blockade with a radius of three kilometers, this destructive power is actually not that great.

Roach understood it as a miniature nuclear bomb with a kill radius of 300 meters and a magical EMP interference radius of 3 kilometers, lasting for 24 hours; it was indeed strategic magic.

The Council of Sages, however, believes that this will at most affect spellcasting for 24 hours and cause serious interference with ley line magic. But you have blown up a Black Abyss graveyard into the current Sulfur Inferno. According to the Council's investigation report, that place will burn for at least 50 years, and the effects will continue to expand.

High temperatures will dry out the surrounding land, reduce agricultural production or even cause crop failure. Large amounts of toxic sulfur gas and exhaust gases will be released, shrouding the environment in a toxic cloud, giving rise to a large number of fire elemental monsters and poison attribute monsters. Moreover, due to the severe impact on agriculture, it will also cause the magic power of civilization to decline and the magic power of chaos to rise.

In short, compared to the dirty bombs that Roach and his team created, the clean-up nuclear bomb effect of this strategic magic seemed so harmless. Even the old guys in the Sage Council thought that throwing out a few "creation magic" spells every now and then would have less destructive power to world peace and the development of civilization than doing something like this.

“Those sages might regret it now.” Leon patted Vilandella on the shoulder sympathetically. “They might regret not going through the process sooner, and that they weren’t given enough strategic spellbooks.”

"Why?" Vilandella asked, puzzled, then something occurred to her. "Wait, could it be that the capital city is also..."

"That's exactly what I mean, and the person in front of you is the one involved. It's all thanks to him that the explosion was so thorough."

"..." Vilandella showed a regretful expression. "Why didn't you try to send me a message? Just that message alone would have allowed me to squeeze more benefits out of them." What was sacrificed was Roach's reputation and public image, but what was gained was real money!

The town of Brenta had abundant supplies, enough for the starving Vilandella to have a big meal. Roach and his group also purchased enough supplies. Apart from herbs, ores, gems and other materials that needed to be bought in the city, they had basically replenished their food and other common items.

The supplies included charcoal, firewood, distilled spirits for mixing potions, and of course, a large quantity of vegetables and wheat flour, filling the basement storage room to the brim. The kitchen was also filled with dried capons and hams. Now that the team had two more big eaters, if they didn't stock up on food, they would probably have to try the little witch's floral-scented soft cakes to fill their stomachs after only a few days of travel—they smelled delicious, but tasted like soap.

It takes at most a day to reach Silver Maple City from Brenta. It is a city built on a hilly plateau. In a sense, it has almost no outer city wall, or rather, the outer city wall is just a low wall covering the base plateau. There are no city gates, only a long ramp connecting to the plateau.

Attackers attempting to advance along this slope would encounter crossfire from the numerous arrow towers and defensive structures flanking the terraces. While seemingly defenseless, these structures were actually formidable. The outer city, or main city, lay on the terraces, while the inner city was situated on the hillside near the mountain, where the spires of churches and castles were faintly visible amidst clusters of silver maple trees.

As an important trading town of the empire, Silver Maple City is quite prosperous. In fact, compared with the outer city, which is bustling with merchants and people, the inner city seems inconspicuous, like a small manor.

The inner and outer city areas are separated by a city wall, but the wall is in disrepair and it is clear that almost no one cares about it.

With this structure, the witch's cottage naturally cannot drive directly into the city. It can only stop by the roadside, becoming a small, inconspicuous wooden house among a row of various shops and commercial facilities along the west main gate and main road.

Indeed, there are also many commercial facilities around the main road outside the city, such as inns and restaurants, as well as bathhouses and various entertainment venues, which are relatively rare in the Empire. Caravans that are not in a hurry to enter the city will trade and rest here.

Even on the flat land south of the main road, there is a large market where trading teams from various towns in Silver Maple County can buy all kinds of local specialties and agricultural products. It is almost like a suburban vegetable market. Caravans loaded with goods often purchase supplies here before setting off.

However, Roach and his companions could only buy most of the things they needed in town. Except for herbs, they were able to buy frog skin grass and stork claws, which they couldn't find in Brenta, but some processed herbs could only be bought in town.

The markets and herbal shops here are more like processing workshops than shops. They mainly buy herbs from herb gatherers and process them into finished herbal products. The finished products are sold in the city, but it's not impossible to buy them here, since they are cheaper. However, the selection is not very complete because the prepared products are all sent to the city.

Silver Maple City has no entry tax, which is why it has become an important trading town. However, because there are so many people coming and going, the checkpoints at the end of the slope are very tight. Fortunately, both Roach and Leon seem to belong to the privileged class, and their black steed doesn't look like something an ordinary person could afford. The guards just glanced at Livia and let her pass.

The streets of Silver Maple City are not entirely paved with stones. Apart from the central carriageway, the sidewalks on both sides are paved with wooden planks, a kind of plank with a faint silver luster. "This is Silver Maple wood, the biggest local specialty, but it's not very valuable. It's a fast-growing wood," Leon explained.

Over the years, these wooden planks have been covered with numerous signs of wear and tear. Every so often, a silver maple tree is planted along both sides of the road. These trees, with their bark covered in a light silvery frost, are practically a symbol of the city, and the air is filled with the sweet aroma of maple syrup.

Yinfengcheng's lower district is also the main urban area, with crisscrossing roads and even structures resembling overpasses that pass overhead and connect the buildings on both sides of the road. Most of the buildings are made of wood rather than brick, which made Luo Qi think that if this place were to catch fire, the scene would definitely be terrifying and spectacular.

"A fire is unlikely. Silver maple wood is not easy to ignite, and more importantly, do you see the reservoir and tower over there?"

"And there's a fire station too~" Roach curiously observed the carriages parked under the towers. The carriages were decorated with runic structures, and azure crystal strips hung from the four corners. He could tell that this was some kind of alchemical construct, a magical configuration used to release cold shocks.

If combined with the water tank and pump inside, along with inexpensive foaming alchemy agents, it should be able to spray out low-temperature foam water jets, which is indeed a powerful tool for dealing with urban fires.

Even with a well-developed fire protection system, the blacksmith workshops that sell metal in Silver Maple City are located on the edge of the city, right next to a huge reservoir where spring water and rainwater from the mountains converge, separated from other buildings by a wide firebreak.

Livia's small mouth opened slightly as she gazed curiously into the rather large metal workshop with her large emerald eyes. The waterfall pounded against the waterwheel, driving the forging hammers to strike incessantly. The flames of the furnace burned fiercely, not from ordinary charcoal fires, but from some kind of magical flame.

"This is the best metal workshop in town." It is said that the owner is a dwarven master craftsman, but Leon said that was nonsense. In fact, the owner is a great mage who specializes in metal alchemy. Otherwise, he would not be able to set up such a complicated magic fire smelting array in the workshop.

"Hmm, eight mistakes..." The little witch pointed directly at the furnace without any politeness, which made the receptionist who had just greeted her with a smile freeze in place.

However, upon seeing the academy professor badge used as a pin on the little witch's cloak, and the golden Arcane Eye badge hanging from the collar of the black cloak, she immediately swallowed the words that were about to spill out: "Do you even know arcane magic? You're just talking nonsense." If a visiting professor at the academy, and the holder of the highest-level title in the arcane magic system, didn't know arcane magic, then the mastermind behind this workshop could only be described as completely ignorant and incompetent.

"I will pass on your feedback to the master. If there are any errors, please feel free to point them out." The other party greeted us with a smile again. "We will do our best to rectify them."

"Oh, no need, we're not here to investigate investment opportunities." Roach could tell at a glance that this person had misunderstood something, and decisively took out a purchase order and handed it to the other party, "Do you have any in stock?"

"Hmm..." The receptionist checked the list and handed it to the dwarf who had been silent the whole time. It seemed he was the one in charge here. The dwarf frowned as he scanned the list, then his brow relaxed slightly. "Most of the items are in stock, but we don't have Nightglow Stone. We don't need that here. You can try looking in the jewelry stores or magic item shops in town."

Obsidian is a special variety of obsidian, usually used for gemstone inlays. The workshop definitely wouldn't have it here, because it would just melt into ordinary lava and lose all its value.

"However, this price..." He didn't really want to doubt a witch's financial resources, but this was almost all of the workshop's high-end inventory, not to mention a considerable amount of basic metal minerals and alloys.

"Ugh~" The little witch looked dejected, having to cross out the materials she had prepared to build her own Gundam. With the money Vilandella brought, that would be enough.

"Will you pick up the goods yourself or have them delivered to your workshop?" After removing the huge quantity of golem materials, what's left could be loaded onto a single carriage, but they're all high-value, expensive materials, so it's definitely not possible to trade them so simply at the counter.

"Send them outside the city, and someone will come to take them." If any thief or robber can snatch these things from Minotaur, then Roach will admit defeat. Moreover, as soon as a fight breaks out on Minotaur's side, Old Horse can almost instantly teleport back—then it will be a test of whether the other side can hold out against the real hellish combination of "Minotaur and Horse-Face" until the witch returns to stop them.

Chapter 411 Even Death Has to Work Overtime

Outside Silver Valley City, the sky was gray, and the wind carried the smell of rust and rotting flesh. Among the charred walls and ruins, a small, warm fire flickered quietly, sustaining a pitiful warmth with scraps of wood.

Looking around, the village is unrecognizable. The dark beams of the houses are leaning and crooked, pressing down on piles of equally charred rubble, with only a few stone walls still standing out.

The scene at the village entrance and along the road leading there was even worse: broken spears, chipped knives, shattered shields, scattered quivers, and even parts of several disassembled siege engines were just lying around, soaking in mud or blood that had begun to turn black.

The corpses were even more conspicuous, both human and horse, dressed in different armor or tattered clothes, lying in various positions in the mud, in the grass, and even half-buried under the wheels of an overturned horse-drawn carriage. Most of them had begun to decompose to varying degrees, attracting swarms of flies that buzzed around the bodies in large numbers.

On the main road leading to Silver Valley City, scattered wreckage of carriages stood out conspicuously. They were clearly the vehicles of commoners or caravans, their carriages smashed, luggage and miscellaneous items scattered all over the ground, some overturned and others half-burned. People dressed in commoners' clothes, men, women, and children, lay lying nearby.

Perhaps the gods were also moved by this tragic scene, for soon a few drops of water fell from the sky, hitting the edge of the large hole blasted by the catapult, and dripping down the edge of the charred thatch. Soon the raindrops came in dense rain, as if to wash away all traces left by the war.

This roadside inn stands in the rain. It may have once been a bustling place to rest, but now only a broken skeleton remains. Most of the building has collapsed into a pile of rubble, but the remaining walls still stand stubbornly, barely forming a corner to shelter from the wind and rain.

The leaping flames pierced through the thick darkness, their flickering light barely illuminating the surrounding scene: cracked, crumbling walls, blackened beams and pillars, and scattered, charred, and warped pieces of furniture.

Rainwater leaked continuously from the holes in the roof, dripping into puddles on the pile of rubble, splashing out tiny ripples. Occasionally, it would drip into the inside of a polished iron helmet on the ground, making a monotonous dripping sound.

From the depths of the dark wilderness, the sounds of wild dogs growling and tearing at each other could be heard intermittently, their sharp, short howls piercing the rain, and the scraping of heavy paws dragging something through the mud. These sounds, sometimes near, sometimes far, echoed in the damp air, constantly drawn by the stench of rotting corpses.

“Setting up camp here is not a good choice, young lady~” A small piece of burning wood was shoved into the pipe, lighting the damp tobacco inside. A middle-aged man wearing a tattered felt hat held the pipe between his fingers, and a worn-out sheathed longsword was beside him. His chainmail and leather shoulder guards were in a state of being neither new nor old.

"Are you scared?" The black-haired girl sat quietly on a relatively intact cabinet, not even noticing the half-pale hand protruding from under the rubble not far away. It seemed that such a hellish scene was nothing more than a common sight to her.

“What I mean is, there are only two of us. Once those beasts and war monsters find us, this sword alone won’t be enough to protect us, and the money you paid isn’t enough to make me risk my life.” The man tossed a bright piece of charcoal over the wall, and immediately more rapid breathing and dragging footsteps could be heard, sounding particularly clear in the rainy night.

"Don't worry, they won't dare come over~" The girl's fingers probed into the campfire, as if the raging flames were nothing more than warm water. Her fingertips curled up slightly, and the flames, like living creatures, wrapped around her palm, docilely curling up in her hand, and little by little, slowly turning from a warm orange-red to a pure white.

The color was pure and holy, but the mercenary opposite could only sense a pure aura of "nothingness" from it. The girl casually flicked the ball of fire toward the wooden door with a large hole in it. The white flames forked and leaped on the wood, enveloping the dilapidated inn in a cocoon of countless intertwined white flames.

"Are you relieved now?" The girl flicked her finger as if she had done something insignificant. The droplets of white fire instantly stained the moss between the bricks, which was extremely resilient, with a layer of gray-white, as if its life and magic had been devoured in an instant, leaving only the empty shell of the material world.

“Alright…” The mercenary’s lips twitched, and he smiled helplessly. “So, have you decided how you’re going to get into the city?” The siege had just ended, and the garrison wouldn’t let anyone in so easily, especially a spellcaster of unknown origin.

"Break in?" The black-haired girl tilted her head, her deep purple eyes calm and revealing no hint of joking.

"...Uh~" The mercenary choked for a moment. "I don't want to doubt your strength." The rogue adventurers hired by the princess's army proved this with more than 30 corpses. They actually chose to run away a minute after the conflict started, and what was the result? The one who could run the fastest didn't even run fifty feet before becoming a gray and empty shell.

More than half of the people were killed by a "magic explosion" within the first minute. The pure, violent explosion of magic and the spreading magical wind instantly crushed their weak souls, tore apart the life-sustaining magic of their bodies, and the resulting magical void drained the life force of the few unlucky ones who were nearby.

What does it feel like for someone to go from living to dead in a minute? The swordsman was still in the stance of drawing his sword when his eyes were covered with a layer of deathly gray, and then he collapsed to the ground.

For the girl, this wasn't even magic; it was simply the purest and most direct use of her talents and instincts. Unlike Livia, a little witch who didn't understand the nature of her power, she, having lived for a long time and had a deep understanding of her abilities, was much more adept at using it.

Moreover, her abilities are the opposite of Livia's; they are pure destruction and annihilation. The former stems from her ability to destroy the structure of tangible magic, restoring all magical constructs to a chaotic state, while the latter stems from her extreme affinity for magic.

If Livia has an extremely high tolerance and resistance to magic, making it impossible for her own spells and potions to cure her minor cold, then the black-haired witch has an extremely high ability to absorb and assimilate magic; the so-called "annihilation" is her absorption of all this magic.

Whether it's life magic or elemental magic, the absorbed magic is converted into pure destructive power or physical strength. Therefore, unlike Livia, this witch was a battle mage with astonishing physical strength even before she used this artificial human body.

"Are you really going to break in?" The mercenary paused for a while before asking cautiously. "I was just kidding," the black-haired girl replied without even looking up, her gaze completely absorbed in the book in her hands.

This was a history book, found in the ruins of a town she had passed through earlier. The defeated soldiers and civilians had no interest in such things, but she found it fascinating. It helped her fill the knowledge gaps she had accumulated over the years, and she gained some basic understanding of the current situation and international affairs.

*Snap!* The black-haired witch slammed the book shut. "Aren't you going to sleep?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that, Miss? Don't you need to sleep?"

"This body doesn't need sleep." The android's alchemical body certainly doesn't need to sleep. She only needs to absorb the magic in the environment to maintain her strength and stamina. This is completely opposite to a certain blonde little witch who gets out of breath after running a few steps. However, they are the opposite of each other.

"Speaking of which, young lady, I don't even know your name. If you don't really intend to fight your way into the city, you'll at least need a registered name, won't you?"

"Antis, Antiseth Sir"

"It's not your real name, right?"

"..." The witch gave him a look that said, "Then why did you ask?"

"What exactly is the purpose of your trip to Silver Valley City?" "I didn't pay you to ask questions." The mercenary could only obediently shut his mouth, crumpling his felt hat into a ball and using it as a pillow. He was very confident in the witch's night watch, whether it was her strength or something else. As for whether he would be in danger? That witch could kill him without lifting a finger.