Witch Troupe and the Undead

Just as Roach and Vivi left the lab, before they could even go to buy the next batch of materials, the little witch grabbed them one by one, holding Roach in her left hand and Vivi in ​​her right, and pulled the two of them straight to the hotel lobby.

She wasn't very strong, and her hands were soft, so Roach and Vivi had to keep up with her pace, otherwise they would definitely have dragged the little girl down on her bottom.

"Oh, you two are here. Come and choose your pieces." The large table was filled with monsters and soldiers made of candy and pastries. The fairy stood on a throne made of hard candy, holding a caramel scepter, looking around.

"What are these things? Is this a tabletop role-playing game?" Roach didn't find any manual or dice, while Vivi curiously examined the moving snacks. As long as she wasn't allowed to eat them, she wasn't too averse to these little things. The blonde little witch jumped onto the cushions and sat down, patting the seats on either side to let Roach and Vivi sit down as well.

"Ahem~" Leslie cleared her throat. "The Fairy Kingdom has been attacked by a monster army led by the evil dragon Tiramisu. The dragon has summoned a powerful dark knight from the abyss, and the Fairy Queen has also summoned her warriors. A great battle is about to break out at the foot of the royal city."

"What a simplistic introduction to the plot! Couldn't you have laid some groundwork? For example, this dragon tiramisu... okay, it really is tiramisu, but what's its origin? And are the processes for summoning heroes and warriors really this flimsy?"

"..." Leslie was silent for a moment, then took out a pen and paper and handed it to Roach, giving off an air of "If you're so good, you write it yourself."

"In short, choose your side," Titania said proudly, raising her scepter. "Fight for your queen!"

"The two of us, one on each side?" Roach pointed to himself and Vivi.

"No, you two are in the Fairy Queen's camp. Choose between the Carrot Knight and the White Radish Knight." One held a spear, and the other held a longsword.

"Can I choose Onion Knight?" That was Roach's first thought, but he quickly shook his head and looked at the pieces. "Aren't there any dice or other manuals?"

"No, Livia hasn't had time to write it yet. How about you do it?"

“Hmm, it’s not impossible.” Roach stroked his chin, feeling like he had spotted a business opportunity. Everyone says that women and children are the easiest to make money from, but actually men are even easier to make money from. You just have to figure out what men like. The only problem now is to reduce costs and increase efficiency as much as possible, and how to achieve that effect.

“Then I’ll choose the one with the spear,” Roach said, reaching for the piece, but his hand was blocked by the spear shaft. Then he saw the white radish knight walk to the front of the formation. “What’s next?”

"Could it be an order?" Leslie flipped through the handbook that the little witch had hastily written in her hand.

"Oh, then... spearmen, form a line, spear formation!" The blue candy soldiers laid their sharp, hard candy spears flat, side by side, and naturally, they stuck together because their outer shells were all made of syrup.

"Oh~ that's interesting!" Roach stroked his chin, and then he saw the little witch's eyes sparkle. She held a small wooden stick in her hand and waved it forward, and a horde of monsters charged towards Roach's spear formation.

The sharp candy pierced into the soft pudding, and the pudding monster tried to swallow these candy soldiers, but because they were stuck together by syrup, it could only spread on the surface like cream, and was eventually torn apart by the sharp edges of the candy armor.

"Ah, it's starting already? I don't even know how to command yet. Oh well, all of you, charge!" Vivi scratched her head and could only order the entire army to attack. As a result, her candy soldiers began to advance madly. Because they had been standing still for too long, when they started moving, they left behind torn candy marks, and some of the candy soldiers rolled on the ground like bowling balls into the monster pile, crushing a large number of matcha goblins to dust.

"Hehe~" Luo Qi heard a crisp and strange laugh, turned his head to look at the little witch, and a smile remained on her usually expressionless face. "Hmm!" With a paw pointing forward, the Tiramisu Dragon spread its wings and jumped up without any martial ethics. It took all its strength to lift it into the air for a short while with its short wings before it crashed headfirst onto the battlefield.

Soon, cream, mayonnaise, salad dressing, and pudding fudge were everywhere. Because Vivi was simply a drag on, even though Roach's command was quite appropriate, the dragon still crushed all the soldiers' outer shells, turning them into sugar crumbs embedded in the soft cake body, like shimmering scales.

The fairy queen Titania's castle was naturally breached as well. On the bare cake castle, the monster army disintegrated into various candy decorations, cream, and jam to adorn the entire cake castle.

Orange-red jam flowed down the lower level, piling up in the shape of flames; scarlet strawberry jam overflowed from every window; monster flags were planted all over the castle; and with the power of the little witch, the shattered candies were pieced back together to form a colorful candy platter.

"Yay, we can finally eat!" The fairy jumped down from the throne and was the first to cut the cake castle into several pieces. Tiramisu was grabbed by Livia's wings and bit into her tail. "Mmm~" Her fair little face was covered with specks of cream and jam.

"The taste is alright, much better than before," Roach commented quietly. It seems that the little witch's learning speed and ability are indeed quite good. It didn't take her long to go from making terrible food to at least being able to eat it. It's just that the cost of ingredients is a bit too much for her.

After all, many of these ingredients are quite expensive, especially jams and salad dressings, which require a lot of sugar, honey, and cooking oil. Wheat, fruits, and vegetables, on the other hand, are not that expensive.

"Lower the spears!" One after another, the spears, crafted from fine steel, were lowered. On the foot-long, dark gray spear blades, bright silver lines outlined intricate patterns. As the necromantic sky approached from afar, the patterns on the spear blades gradually lit up, the soft white light light both light and bright, giving people boundless courage.

The kingdom lacks sufficient cavalry, but possesses excellent spearmen, each wielding a special runic spear with powerful armor-piercing capabilities and life-giving buffs. This allows the kingdom to withstand the overwhelming force of the Empire's knightly orders, even when its mobile forces are at a disadvantage.

"Pfft!" The moment the spear made contact with the undead zombie, it cut into its flesh. The contact surface quickly ignited with pale white flames, making a sizzling sound, and a strong stench of decay filled the air.

"Wind!" A breeze carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees blew by. Although the kingdom did not have the ability to construct defensive positions with the empire's spiritual crystals, it had its own defensive magic due to its alliance with the Forest Elf Kingdom and other alien forces.

The forest elves, covered in soft, short hair and with two tufts of feathery antennae on their heads, wield staffs made of ancient vines and stab them into the ground. Each forest elf is a life-source mage and possesses their own unique "Forest Whisper Magic" system.

Lush green saplings sprouted from the center of the army formation, their branches spreading outwards. The kingdom's runic spearmen formed their ranks around these trees. Through forest whisper magic, forest elves could convert earth's secret energy into life's secret energy, and then use these "sacred trees" to transform it into life-binding spells that buffed the surrounding soldiers. Stamina, strength, and resilience were all increased.

The power of life spread outwards along the trees, and pale flames rose continuously from the bodies of all the undead creatures. However, the battle formation continued to advance steadily, because nothing from the kingdom could break into the sky to behead the black-armored soul-binding corpses standing in front of the fortress and destroy the rift in the bone realm.

This resulted in a large number of new low-level undead creatures being created the moment a massive arc of death energy struck the ground. Undead monsters poured into the mortal realm from hell, advancing into the depths of the kingdom until they were temporarily stopped by a new fortified city.

Thick smoke swirled across the battlefield, and tattered flags gradually burned to ashes. Knight Commander Gavins walked slowly across the plain, his hand on his longsword. All around him were burial pits, where surviving soldiers were throwing corpses into the pits to burn.

The exhausted knights had even lost interest in looting the spoils of war. They sat together in twos and threes, drinking hot water with salt and sugar. The mages were also exhausted. They found a clean spot, closed their eyes, and pretended to sleep, trying their best to recover their energy.

The air was filled with the corpses of elemental spirits, the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive, the flames were low and gloomy, and even the moisture had become sticky, humid and hot, making people feel extremely uncomfortable. This was the aftereffect of the large-scale arcane spell bombardment. Furthermore, due to the extraction of a large amount of earth's secret essence, the land also showed characteristics of rock and sand.

"The strength and quality of these undead have declined considerably. Is it because of the previous defeats?" Such battles have occurred several times outside Stone Bridge Town. Even the town's militia can now calmly deal with the still twitching zombies that have been cut into pieces, throw them into the incineration pit, pour in the molten glue, and burn them into a pile of charcoal.

"However, this should be the last scattered undead force in the vicinity. Next, we can begin the attack on Ballista Town." Knight Commander Gavins exhaled a breath of stale air. He felt that something was amiss behind this undead calamity.

Whether it's the Deathwhisper Fortress that disappeared too quickly, the envoys of the Kingdom of Rada who have yet to respond, or the actions of these undead, they all give off a peculiar feeling.

The fireplace flames gradually died down. After playing all day and eating too many sweets, the blonde little witch curled up on the bed, covered with a thin blanket. Her breathing was weak and even, and her light golden hair covered most of her face, making her look like a golden ball of fluff.

"Your hair is so beautiful..." Vivi touched the smooth, golden hair that had fallen onto the blanket. It felt cool and smooth to the touch, like the finest silk.

"Don't you dare try to pluck one out to take a look," Leslie teased. She was wearing a thin linen blouse that accentuated her shapely figure, and she held a quill pen in her hand, preparing to copy new sheet music and some materials that the little witch had borrowed from the library for her.

"What's going to happen?"

"She'll get a beating." As for what she'll get beaten up by, that's hard to say, but at least the clothes rack behind her looks like it's about to pounce.

"In short, Miss Livia is not as simple as she seems on the surface." Leslie could only say so much, and dared not say any more, such as the fact that the black horse in the stable, which lived as quietly as a plant, was actually a great demon.

It was another early morning. The sky was overcast, and fine raindrops tapped against the window, making a crisp, monotonous noise. "Ooh~" Livia looked up, rubbed her eyes, a few strands of hair stuck to her mouth, and stared blankly at the raindrops sliding down the window with her emerald eyes. "It's raining."

"Ah~ it's raining. This is the first time it's rained in so many days." Luo Qi didn't quite understand the local climate. It had been sunny for so many days, and now it was finally raining.

The rain dispersed the scorching smoke above Hearth Castle and washed away the traces of battle inside and outside the city. The filthy rainwater, mixed with all sorts of garbage and soot, was guided into the sewers and then discharged into the lower structures.

"Damn, it's raining up there." The adventurer, carrying his pack, looked at the sewage seeping down from the rock structure above and the roaring water in the waterway beside him, and his expression was rather grim.

The murky water roared along the ancient waterway into the distance, the metal fence at the end completely rusted and broken. The water and the broken metal posts clashed and made a series of noises. "Turn the lights on!" He turned on the lantern hanging at his waist, illuminating the thick moss on the walls and the ancient, broken city bricks. "Jack, look at the map, where are we?" the burly adventurer with a thick beard, who was leading the group, whispered.

“We are now at the lowest level of the ancient sewers. Below that is the unknown area, which is said to be the ancient ruins of Luster.” The thief at the back of the group looked at the simple map in his hand by the light, and then compared it with the structure of the sewers and the already blurred carvings. “Hmm, we are now in the underground sewers built by the ancient Kingdom of Luster. If our information is correct, there should be an ancient dungeon down here.”

"Why would they build the dungeon beneath the sewers?" The young female mage, leaning on her staff, looked curiously at the indistinct carvings and broken statues. "And why did they build so many statues?"

“Strictly speaking, this may not have been a sewer before, but just a waterway.” Hearth City was built on the ruins of the old city of the original Luster Kingdom, and the phenomenon of stacking layers is very common in this world.

After all, there are only so many suitable locations for building a city with sufficient resources, water, and few monsters nearby. As a result, cities often have one layer on top of another, and nobody really knows what the city's sewers or underground waterways are connected to.

Even the tombs might be layered on top of each other, making it impossible to tell which era they belong to. This kind of work is extremely challenging even for adventurers who are most familiar with underground ruins and structures.

"However, it's unclear why the dungeon is on the lowest level. Perhaps it wasn't built by the Kingdom of Luster." The adventurers found a path at the end of the waterway. The water roared past them as it crashed into a low stone cave, disappearing without a trace. Perhaps it flowed into an underground river. At the end of the waterway, there was a crack less than a meter wide in the brick wall, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.

"I'll go first." In this situation, the thief or scout needs to be the first to sneak in and investigate the road and traps behind, then the warrior or archer, then the mage and the apothecary, and finally the remaining warriors are responsible for covering the rear.

To avoid leaving the two technical professions of mage and apothecary alone, arcanist mages rarely join adventurers. They are usually apprentices or trainees. There are basically no formal or advanced arcanist mages. Even if there are, they are only temporary members for a specific mission.

For example, the mage in this team joined for the purpose of writing a thesis. Her thesis is about the relationship between the underground water system of Hearthstone City and ancient ruins. Most of the research projects of the esoteric mages are of this type. After all, if you are not familiar with the environment, the number and effectiveness of the spells you can use will be very weak.

The "safety" scout squeezed through first. Behind the crack was a deep cave filled with stalagmites, but there were also some extinguished braziers scattered in the cave, and some of them even had unburnt charcoal in them.

"I never imagined there was such a big hole beneath the city." The regimental commander looked around.

"Master, do you need to rest?"

“No need,” the female mage squatted down and looked at the carvings under the stone brazier. “Well, this is also a relic of the Kingdom of Luster. Their faith is in the goddess of love and desire, a very strange deity. So, on their buildings and artifacts, you can mostly see the goddess’s profile or the crescent moon symbol representing the goddess.”

"Isn't it a full moon?"

"That was a later evolution of the belief. However, the academic community generally does not accept this view. After all, the research on this goddess is not very complete and rigorous. They believe that it may not be the evolution of one god in different periods, but rather several gods. There is even a minority view that this goddess of desire is not the kingdom's belief, but rather the kingdom's great enemy. This is not entirely without evidence."

"For example, the barrier over the lost capital, after so many years of research, can be considered a type of anti-divine barrier. In other words, the Luster people sealed some kind of divine being within their capital, or perhaps some kind of evil god." That barrier wasn't protecting that forbidden area, but rather protecting other people.

"So, we really have found the right location? Then, is there really treasure?"

"Well... if we're talking about treasure, you've already found part of it. These ancient Luster Kingdom stone braziers are quite valuable in the collector's market."

"It's too heavy and inconvenient to carry." The team leader understood what she meant, nodded, and indicated that the team could continue.

Chapter 42 The True Core of the Team

After autumn arrived, the Luster Plain was shrouded in continuous drizzle, making the roads muddy. The braziers set up outdoors to ward off the shadow of death became increasingly difficult to light, making the battle more and more difficult for the Imperial Army, which was preparing to capture Ballista Town and the surrounding villages.

Dark clouds churned in the sky, and cold raindrops fell on the black cloak, sliding down to the ground. The petite witch stretched out her palm, feeling the coolness of the rain. Her emerald eyes swept over the soldiers who were marching dejectedly through the rain, a look of confusion on her face.

"Miss Livia~" Leslie lifted the curtain of the carriage, revealing the spacious interior behind her. This type of carriage, specially designed for alchemists, has a very spacious interior, and can even be divided into a low second floor. In the center of the first floor is a miniature arcane furnace, used for refining potions and extracting materials. Around it are two workbenches, and the spacious interior can even accommodate a small sofa.

"Won't you come in and warm up?" The autumn rain brought with it a drop in temperature, but the low temperature seemed to have no effect on the little witch. She was still dressed in the same thin clothes, showing no signs of being chilled.

"Hmm~" The secret furnace inside the carriage emitted a warm aura, enveloping the entire carriage in a layer of warmth. A thin curtain seemed to separate the carriage from the outside world, creating two different worlds.

"Puff puff~" The black horse shook its head, and the shadows under its four hooves twisted like flying flames. However, the yoke fixed to its chest forced it to obediently pull the cart forward.

Such a magnificent black horse was used as a draft horse, which made many soldiers and knights look at it with pity and regret. The black horse, however, responded with disdain and anger. If the environment and occasion were not inappropriate, it would have sent nightmares to these guys one by one tonight.

Pulling the cart along the muddy road wasn't a problem for Black Horse, who was essentially a great demon. He was used to being watched, as it wasn't the first time he'd pulled a witch's cart. However, pulling the cart in this kind of weather and road condition was far from pleasant.

"Should I cut it open or tear it apart? No, no, no, burn it!" Dark emotions churned within the black horse. If the culprit who caused all this appeared before it, it felt it would show the other party what a sub-lord-level great demon of the sixth level of hell really looked like, and let them see for themselves how many eyes their Lord Horse had!

The potion cauldron on the arcane furnace gurgled and popped. The witch stretched out her small hand, palm down, and the dazzling liquid in the pot swirled and stirred rapidly. All sorts of miscellaneous materials, such as dried lizards, insects, and herbs, slowly dissolved into scattered scum and settled down, leaving only a pot of clear, watery liquid.

These sparkling waters, resembling Sprite, were poured into small triangular bottles. This was the "Life-Binding Potion," a new potion invented based on the "Death-Binding Potion" used by psychics to harm people—the result of the little witch's research over this period.

Its original function was to allow a faint death magic to entwine the human body, gradually weakening it until death, while also polluting the soul so that it would not dissipate normally and quickly, thus giving psychics the convenience of summoning spirits.

As the saying goes, if there are no customers, create them. Spirit mediums are very good at this technique. They use poisons such as Death Coil to target the families and relatives of nobles and the wealthy, and then use Soul-Binding Corpses as bait to lure them step by step into the abyss. While swindling money, they also gain a Soul-Binding Corpse as a fighting force.

Usually, as long as it's done discreetly, the client can take the blame and be condemned by the church for using evil rituals and worshipping demons. Of course, there are also many cases where people accidentally go too far and get killed by adventurers.

"Drink it"

"...Can I not drink it?" Leslie looked to the others for help, but Vivi pressed her down expressionlessly, and Roach forced it down her throat. The potion took effect the moment she drank it, and a faint life force wrapped around her body. To most undead creatures, this guy was like... well, a pile of dog poop smeared with sugar.

"Ugh~" Leslie started rolling her eyes. The little witch's potions were great in every way, except for the extremely inhuman taste, especially the one she had just developed. After Leslie was given the potion to test, Roach and Vivi also looked troubled when faced with it.

However, considering that if I drink it later, the taste will probably overwhelm me, so I can only start drinking it now.

It tastes like most sparkling water at first sip, but then a minty coolness rushes to the brain, transforming into an indescribable, multicolored black flavor that assaults all five senses, making every nerve in the brain scream "disgusting!"

When Roach, who had had enough of the little witch's torment, drank it, he felt a wave of dizziness. Vivi was in slightly better condition, but she was also a little unsteady on her feet. However, apart from the unbearable taste, the potion itself was still very effective and reliable.

Soon, a faint life force enveloped them as well. This potion made them low-priority targets for undead creatures on the battlefield. Simply put, it didn't enhance their defense, but it maximized the survivability of their teammates. Before the last teammate was killed, no undead monster would attack these lumps of shit.

As for Livia herself, she doesn't need to drink any potions. If she wants, the rich life force will wrap around her. Of course, the price is that it will drain the life force of any living being around her, including humans, leaving everyone weak or even dead on the spot. Moreover, this effect is almost indiscriminate, and the closer you are, the harder and faster it will drain your life force.

"Don't die," the little witch said earnestly to Roach. "Life is not enough, don't die."

Unlike in the Living Forest, the surrounding life essence was insufficient. Although Roach's soul would not dissipate, repairing his body required a considerable amount of life essence. There was a reason why he was not well-liked by his other "colleagues" in the Living Forest.

After all, the resources that allowed Roach to be resurrected were all deducted from their "wages," and who would want that? Moreover, the closest, largest, and most abundant source of life force to Roach and the Little Witch was...

In a sense, it's a normal outcome and treatment for Roach to be bullied in the workplace.

The situation was slightly better in Hearthglen, where materials were plentiful. Roach and the Little Witch refined a considerable amount of Life Essence as payment. However, refining such a large quantity of essence—enough to revive a torn, dead body—required more materials than ordinary resources. Therefore…

"Huh? What's that horse...?" Carius rode his beloved horse past the carriage with his squires and knights, and immediately spotted the exceptionally magnificent black horse. The only question was, had the horse's mane been burned? Why was it bald? Or did the horse have some kind of hair loss disease?

"..." The black horse stared at Karius with a very strange look. If this guy dared to utter that word, Karius would be lucky if he didn't have nightmares for even one day during this march.

"Master Roach, is what you've made really effective?"

“Probably…” Roach was fiddling with a scepter-like object in his hand. The scepter itself was made by the witch using the technology of creation. It was a diffusion scepter that spread the effects of the secret source spell.

For arcane mages, when their skill level is insufficient to unleash a wide-area, overwhelming magical bombardment, they can increase the range of their control over arcane magic. The mages of this world do not possess specialized spell structures such as fire walls or fireballs; in their eyes, fire magic is simply fire magic.

Within this range, they can freely shape flames, infuse them with fire elemental magic, use the power of flames to enhance weapons and the human body, and also use them to form stable fireballs for illumination or fire summons with a certain degree of autonomous combat capability, etc.

Similarly, the spells of other elements and mystic sources are largely the same. This results in local mages having only a few spells on their spell list, such as basic fire, advanced lightning, basic life, etc. In reality, they have quite a few tricks up their sleeves. As for what tricks they can come up with, that depends on their knowledge and imagination.

In terms of imagination, Roach is clearly quite skilled, as he is trying to combine the Explosion Seal and the Impact Seal, and then power them with Life Essence, thus creating an Anti-Undead Nova Impact.

However, the progress was very slow, not as fast as the little witch's research on new spells. When Roach discovered that some basic chemical and physical rules were still in effect while researching alchemy, he encouraged the little witch to first inject lightning into the water sphere, convert the water sphere into gas, and then use wind magic to compress it and launch it in an interlaced structure with a fire arrow.

Then, on their march, they successfully turned a deserted village into a wasteland. Nightmare-like blue flames instantly expanded, engulfing the entire village. Everything, whether it was the unpurified corpses, the remaining houses, the rotting and foul-smelling food, or the harmless monsters crawling around, was burned to ashes in a short time.

Roach named the spell "Composite Cremation Spell" and was then smacked on the head by the little witch because it sounded awful. However, the little witch hadn't thought of a name for it either, so she had to put it aside for the time being.

"Not bad, tsk..." Black Horse recalled the strange blue fire yesterday. For him, the temperature of the flames was just right, not too hot, nor too weak. After all, the essence of the Nightmare Demon is that it has no physical entity. Living in an environment like Hell, fire and lava are its main sources of energy.

Outside Ballista Town, the Knights had already engaged in battle with the garrison of the undead. The knights, with their extraordinary physiques, formed triangular lances and galloped across the battlefield, their cries like thunder. The fragile resurrected skeletons were instantly crushed by the knights' charges, followed by the slightly stronger zombies, and then the resurrected warriors.

Each knight possesses at least two types of [Superhuman Physique] and one type of [Superhuman Combat Skill]. The Beast Knights are best at dealing with strong and tall enemies. The warhorses they use are heavy highland horses from the northern provinces of the Empire, rather than plains horses. These horses are short and stocky, not good at short-distance sprints, but have excellent endurance.

Furthermore, they are heavy and powerful, capable of carrying knights in full armor and heavy bridles for extended periods of time in a charge. The only drawback is that these horses are not fast; even at full speed, they are only slightly faster than ordinary warhorses at a trot.

It is best suited to dealing with orcs and their giant warg riders and lizard riders. The former's sharp teeth are useless against warhorses covered in full armor, even their legs are covered by skirt armor, while the latter are slow, so the speed of these heavy horses is not an issue.

Most importantly, although this kind of horse is slow, it is huge. A "horse" weighing one and a half tons is a monster that simply does not exist on Earth. Only this kind of monster can break through the army formation of those orcs.

However, the Beastmasters are least adept at dealing with agile enemies like the Kingdom's Deerclops Cavalry and ranged units like the Rangers. They can't catch up with them, can't hit them, and are slow to maneuver. Such enemies are left to the Empire's Dragonhawk Knights.

Similarly, when it comes to dealing with the undead, the Dragonhawk Knights, riding standard high-speed plains horses with eagles on their saddles and controlling giant eagles to coordinate their attacks, are not as effective as Gavins's Grim Reaper Knights.

The undead's greatest advantage is their tireless stamina, and the Grim Reaper's greatest advantage is also stamina. Their heavy armor and horse armor, combined with the weight of the horses themselves, are an advantage against these rotting skeletons and rotten flesh. A single blow from their bowl-sized hooves can crush the entire chest cavity of a resurrected skeleton.

Ultimately, these undead were utterly crushed into dust, beyond any possibility of resurrection. The weapons used by the Grim Reaper Knights were also unique, known as "spear swords." They were as long as lances, but one-third of their length consisted of a broad blade engraved with buff runes to enhance strength and stamina.