Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Would you like some hot soup?" Leslie brought out a bowl of hot soup made with ginger and brown sugar. It wasn't very tasty, but it could replenish energy and make you sweat.

"Mmm~" The weak little witch sipped her drink slowly. Having grown accustomed to living in the ever-spring-like environment of the Living Forest, she had successfully made Leslie realize, through her days of dozing off on the deck chair and watching the snow, that even with some mysterious power and powerful magic that no one else could understand, she was still just a mortal.

Simply put, she will get sick, especially someone like Livia with a weak constitution who is used to stable temperatures and has suddenly arrived in this snowy region. She is even more likely to get sick.

She can extract other people's magic and life force, but she can't extract their constitution. As for colds, the more life force you pour in, the worse it gets, but of course, the faster you recover. She tried to extract some life force from Old Ma, but it only made her immune system more excited. She developed a fever and ended up in bed, where she could only drink magic potions.

The awkward part is that potions enhance the body's adaptability and resistance, but it's a proportional increase. Even after taking three non-contradictory potions, Livia's physical condition still requires a good rest for a while.

After drinking the medicine and hot soup, the blonde loli arched her body, completely wrapped in a blanket, curled up into a ball, with only her golden hair and half of her face showing, like a golden cocoon.

"Bang!" Amidst the gunshot, the silver-gray longsword drew a blazing arc. That blazing arc was the enchanting effect that Livia had infused into the sword using the power of Vilandella's Ash Dragon Flame. Note that it was an enchanting effect, meaning it was gone once it was used up and could not be recharged.

Fortunately, according to Roach's calculations, this thing can be used a four-digit number of times. As long as he doesn't use this sword for practice all the time, he basically doesn't need to worry about running out of it.

Because the first thing a normal adventurer would do upon acquiring such a high-level enchanted weapon is not to try it out, but to immediately find a blacksmith to make an identical weapon with extremely similar weight, center of gravity, and feel for practice. Just kidding, the "durability" of an enchanted weapon starts dropping the moment you take it out; in other words, it's truly "creating power with gold."

But Tex was helpless; he didn't have the money to forge an exact replica. Besides, the sword's structure was so unique that most blacksmiths couldn't replicate it.

"Don't these people need any weapons for self-defense?" Roach looked at his companions, especially the girl with black twin tails. The girl raised her violet eyes slightly and hesitated for a moment. "This is enough for me." She was referring to her cane.

Similar to the little witch's cane, it is a round wooden stick with metal at the tip or handle. The little witch's cane even has emerald green leaves and small white flowers on it, making it look more like a stick picked up from the wild.

However, the one in Lei's hand was indeed made of hard hickory wood that had a certain guiding effect on magic, while the one in Livia's hand was hard to say what kind of thing it was. Anything that could make Old Horse bump its head was definitely not an ordinary wooden stick.

Moreover, Roach heard that the cane had a long history. Simply put, it was a relic of Livia's teacher's teacher, and it was now in her possession as the third generation. It was said that when it was in the hands of her teacher, the "Youth Witch" Neel Riley, it began to grow leaves, but when it came to Livia's hands, not only were the leaves lush and green, but it even bloomed with pale white flowers.

“This isn’t enough, unless you’re using Livia’s cane,” Roach shook his head. Of course, with Livia’s cane, as long as they didn’t freeze to death, they could even walk out of the Black Forest without clothes. And then… how long they could live depended on how long it took to meet someone who knew its value.

A magic wand made from the heartwood of the Mother Tree of Life is enough to buy the lives of those four people, plus the lives of all the adventurers in this camp. The three golden rings on the wand are each a powerful arcane amplification item, engraved with powerful amplification runes, although the little witch has never used this function.

However, if she held the cane horizontally, its defensive power would be no less than the armor Roach was currently wearing, provided that the little witch could react in time when suddenly attacked, instead of frantically banging the cane around—that red-faced, tearful, blindfolded banging look was cute, but really too dangerous, for both her and her sparring partner.

As for the other materials used, there's no need to go into details. In short, disregarding the symbolic significance of antiques and certain societies or schools of thought, the price of that thing, just based on the materials alone, is an astronomical sum that no one here could afford—yes, including those two devils.

In Old Ma's words, with this weapon, he only needs to perform a set of staff techniques, without using magic, to fight his way into the palace gates of the sixth-level lord, knock down all the opponents, walk to the throne room, sit down, and ask, "Here I am the one in charge. Who agrees and who disagrees?"

"Master Livia's staff? That... is too..." Not all arcane mages' staffs are powerful equipment; most of the time they are simply auxiliary equipment and one of the last weapons after close combat. But this is too expensive, isn't it?

"I was just mentioning it; I didn't intend to lend it to you or sell it to you," Roach said nonchalantly. "What I mean is, this weapon of yours is useless no matter what you do with it..."

“But we’re out of money,” Erickson replied honestly.

"Hmm... I do have a request here. If things go smoothly, I can sponsor you a starting set of equipment."

"What commission?"

"...logging and herb gathering"

"what?"

"No need. We need a lot of firewood here and at the camp. We can't do without logging. We also need to gather herbs. We need quite a few... well, common medicines." Because the little witch has amazing magic resistance, healing spells and antidote potions reach their resistance limit in a very short time, meaning they are resisted by her. We can only rely on normal herbs for treatment.

However, everyone who was used to the witch's healing potions realized that they hadn't prepared these kinds of herbs beforehand. Now that the witch herself had collapsed, things got really funny. It was like the whole team only had one healer, and now that the healer was down, they realized they should have kept a couple of red potions in their bag.

Chapter Ninety-Seven

At the edge of the Black Forest, "Weren't we supposed to be logging? Why did you bring us here?" Tex and his three companions trembled. From here, they could already see the city covered in lava-like, angry magic in the distance. In other words, there would be sporadic Sin Demons appearing here, as well as other monsters formed from the power of great Sin magic.

“Logging, you probably can’t cut down those fresh logs, so this is all you need,” Alessina said, pointing to the withered, dark gray trees at the edges, eroded by the magic of the Great Sin.

These trees are the prototype of the demon trees in the swamp canyon. If the power of the Great Sin magic recedes, these withered trees will become the man-eating demon trees that Roach cut down. Essentially, the concept of savage magic remains inside these withered trees, thus transforming them into demon trees.

The difference between them is like the difference between a living person and a skeleton monster, so in order to avoid the emergence of a large group of demon trees, Roach sent them here to cut down trees.

"Miss Alessina, why are you coming with us?"

“I’m afraid you’ll all die,” Alessina said, gently wiping the blade of the greatsword with a small whetstone-like object. As she wiped it, the runes on the blade brightened. This weapon was not an enchanted weapon, but a constant buff weapon. It did not have any active effects, but the effects were basically permanent.

While it may be described as constant, it still requires constant maintenance. There is no such thing as equipment that can be left unattended for tens of thousands of years and still be usable, unless it is preserved in a specific ritual site or alchemical array. Otherwise, if you neglect weapon maintenance, the weapon will treat you like a fart when you encounter an enemy.

"Crack!" The withered wood that had not yet been transformed into a demon tree trembled under the axe. It was still very hard, but compared to the black pine wood that even steel axes could not cut through, it was already quite... soft.

Alessina sat on a tree stump, like a teacher taking children on a field trip, watching four novice adventurers chop wood while chewing on a blade of grass.

Tyx was the best at it all. One of the basic training methods for a knight's squire was chopping wood and cutting down trees with a very blunt and heavy sword. The purpose was to get you used to the weight of the weapon and how to manage your stamina during continuous swinging.

Secondly, it helps you train your accuracy in chopping. After all, if you chop randomly, you won't cut down any trees. This is why lumberjacks and miners were good sources of soldiers in the era of cold weapons. The former could even be sent to the battlefield with a set of leather armor, a helmet, and a lumberjack axe, and their combat effectiveness was not bad.

In addition, due to the physical characteristics of the people in this world, most of the enemies encountered on the battlefield, whether monsters or humans, are armored. Even monsters like skeletons require some skill to cut their bones. Chopping ribs in the kitchen is not a job that just anyone can do.

In a sense, Zhen Guanxi, who could finely chop ten pounds of soft cartilage into minced meat, was probably no less powerful than Lu Zhishen. He was only defeated by three punches after exhausting his strength. This shows that it is not an exaggeration to say that Lu Zhishen was rough on the outside but shrewd on the inside.

Tex gripped the axe handle with both hands as he had been trained: not too tight, or the recoil would tear his hands apart; not too loose, or it would slip from his grasp. He maintained just the right amount of force and swung it down with great speed, using the axe's momentum and center of gravity to fling the blade into the cut.

Then, twist it up and down slightly to loosen the wood fragments before pulling out the axe blade. Lumberjacks rarely do this; only two types of people do it: apprentices in training and experienced lumberjacks. The former do it to inflict greater damage on the enemy in combat, while the latter do it simply because they are old and find it slower but less strenuous.

Rosa and Erikson, who had also done rough work, weren't as fast as Tyx, but with a little help, they could still chop the logs into pieces of firewood. On the other hand, Ray was sweating profusely while using a broad-bladed dagger to trim branches, and his processing speed was even slower than his companions who needed to chop the logs into pieces.

This caused her companions to stop and wait for her from time to time. When Alessina saw this, she didn't say anything, but just silently glanced around, wary of any wrathful demons that might appear.

Soon, the team had chopped enough firewood, which was what Roach had requested. The reward was very low, only 5 copper coins. In a city, people would probably fight tooth and nail for it, but here... that price would hardly entice any serious adventurers to come to this remote area to cut down these demonic trees.

Even if Alessina were to provide security, they wouldn't do it, not only because the pay was too low, but also because most adventurers were averse to such simple manual labor. In other words, if they were law-abiding citizens, they would work on a farm or honestly inherit the family business as scribes or church apprentices, rather than engaging in adventurous work.

Only these few newcomers, abandoned by their companions, would be so obedient in such a desperate crisis. After all, they inevitably had to do odd jobs in the adventure group, while those who had already made it big would even consider such a thing a humiliation.

"Hmm, that's about enough."

"What does Master Roach need so much firewood for?"

Alessina didn't hide anything about "boiling water and lighting fires." In addition to providing boiling water, he also provided distilled water. After all, distilled water was an indispensable material in alchemy, and it was needed in almost every step. Distilled water needed to be produced by boiling water with charcoal and filtering it using an old-fashioned still.

However, charcoal and ash both require wood from logging to produce, so that's just how it is. Not to mention that heating, cooking, and brewing medicine also require fuel, and because Roach and his group are few in number, they actually consume more fuel.

Hmm? That's not surprising, because humans are a very powerful source of heat. When there are many people, even a fireplace without a flame will feel very warm. In particular, the physical abilities of these otherworldly beings result in a metabolism and heat dissipation that are far more vigorous than those of humans on Earth.

Of course, the local food has a much higher calorie content than on Earth. As a person who is physically present but not physically present, Roach feels that his appetite has decreased by at least half. You have to understand that a tall guy like him who has worked in the wild has an extraordinary appetite, but here—he is probably only able to sit at a table with the little witch and share a children's meal.

Yes, another minor character here is Livia. Titania once complained that she and Roach would only need one kids' meal and a dessert together. The rest of the group have large appetites, so Alessina has to cook a lot of food every day, which requires more fuel.

"I see, but we only have tents to stay in." The four of them often hugged each other, relying on each other's body heat to fight off the cold night. At this time, no one cared about the difference between men and women. Just kidding, if they didn't do this, they could carry out several frozen corpses from the tent the next day. The exact number would depend on the difference in their physical condition.

"I remember there's accommodation available over at the rest area, isn't there?"

"Can't afford to stay..." I can definitely afford to stay, but I can't stay until spring. Instead of spending that little money on rent, I might as well buy weapons and take a gamble.

After delivering enough firewood, Alessina brought the people back relatively safely. Why relatively safe? Because on the way, they encountered a large lynx that was hunting for food due to hunger and cold. However, this magical beast (not a monster) simply stared at Alessina for a while, ultimately deciding that this thing was not prey it could hunt, and chose to abandon the four tender and weak prey behind her.

Alessina was not tall, about the same height as Rosa, the shortest in the group, but she carried a rather heavy sword on her back, which showed that she must be a very powerful warrior.

"Next time you go out, don't stray too far from me. Hmm, next time Miss Vilandella will take you to collect herbs. It's even more dangerous over there than the Black Forest." The reason the Imperial Survey Team didn't retreat to Dragon Castle and set up camp near the Dragon Castle Mountains was because the roads in the Dragon Castle Mountains were extremely difficult to travel, and the monsters there were much stronger than those in the Black Forest.

"why?"

"I don't know. You should ask Miss Livia, but she seems to be sick lately." Alessina didn't answer Ray's question. She really didn't know the answer. She was just a warrior; why should she care about the causes of the local ecosystem?

Her knowledge of monster science was limited to dissecting monsters, knowing their weaknesses, what valuable items should not be damaged in battle, and which parts could be cut off. Even so, she was already considered a "cultured person" of the tribe, comparable to a warrior commander, second only to the tribe's shaman and singer.

Shamans possess knowledge of herbalism, potion-making, basic mysticism, and various ancient techniques and knowledge. They are typically tribal leaders or chief assistants.

The singers are the third most important figures in the tribe, similar to the bards, but they are responsible for recording and singing the tribe's stories and songs, using music and ancestral epics to unite the tribe. As for the warrior commanders, they are the second most important figures.

Not only are they required to be able to fight, but they also need to be able to understand military orders and have some miscellaneous knowledge. The requirements for military command are not actually high. The main thing is to be able to hold the line on the battlefield, know what the orders are, and not lead the soldiers to a dead end.

Since warrior commanders are responsible for evaluating merits and distributing spoils, they also need to learn seemingly unrelated subjects like monster studies. If a warrior commander continuously leads the tribe's warriors in hunting and war, and ends up wasting all the valuables and suffering heavy losses due to unfamiliarity with the prey, then no matter how skilled they are, they can't continue in their position.

Miss Livia gets sick too.

"Ah, of course." In fact, her illness not only came on faster and went slower than others, but it was also very serious. Her muscular physique was riddled with holes after being trained by various strong men. Even with all the effective measures taken, her recovery was still very slow.

"It will probably take one or two weeks to recover." She is currently wrapped in a blanket and dozing off by the fireplace. Her appetite has improved slightly, but the cold symptoms are still lingering.

"May the gods bless her," Ray prayed, bowing his head for a while.

"Hmm..." Alessina directed the four men to pile the firewood on the shelf behind the hut, then settled their wages for the day: 15 copper coins, enough for each of them to eat two pounds of bread, a bowl of stew, and a cup of water mixed with a little ale in the city. Making a living that way wouldn't be a problem, but buying more equipment with that was simply impossible.

“We're not quite there yet, but once we get the hang of it, we should be able to earn an extra 3-5 copper coins each day.” As the accountant, Lai carefully reviewed the accounts. “That means we should be able to afford some basic weapons once winter is just over and the weather warms up a bit.”

However, as complete novices, they didn't know that the coldest time of year was actually when the Black Forest was relatively safe during winter, although advanced creatures like forest spirits would appear in the forest at this time.

This creature, born from a mixture of magic such as deathly stillness, cold, and fear, is a standard lord-level monster. There is only one in each Black Forest, and its potential for high or low survival rates is extremely high.

The more despairing and terrifying the dark forest, the more terrifying the forest spirits or forest essences they nurture. In those vast, dense forests, these things are no less than ordinary minor gods. According to Black Horse, the forest spirits in the completely undeveloped dark forests on the continent are no different from hell lords when they are on their home turf.

However, once a forest spirit leaves the forest, or even reaches the edge of the forest, its strength will be greatly reduced. Even so, such a thing is not something that novices or normal adventurers can encounter.

Therefore, the Black Forest in winter is the most dangerous, but in reality, the difficulty is not too high. Compared to monsters, the cold, snow, and hard, blocked thorns and trees are your biggest threats.

When the weather warms up as Lai and his friends plan, that's when the real despair begins. Yes, at this time, no more forest spirits will spawn, the climate will be slightly warmer, the wild environment won't be as bad, and you won't encounter magical beasts like lynxes that can wipe out the entire team in minutes.

But remember, the reason they don't attack you or attack you relatively less is because other prey have also appeared. In other words, it's a real test for novice adventurers.

A large number of ferocious, threatening, and harmful monsters and magical beasts will appear, while panic-level and lord-level monsters will become rarer—after all, if you can eat your fill just by wandering around your doorstep, there is really no need to search for prey all over the forest.

"No matter how many times I eat it, I find it hard to swallow..." Tex poured light beer into a plate, then tore a slice of bread into it and soaked it in, making it a little easier to eat. He then paired it with a large slice of grilled bacon, and that was his entire meal.

"At times like this, it doesn't matter who you are. Everyone can only eat the food they brought. Thanks to Rosa and Lai, we weren't forced to eat dry bread." Because Lai has a talent for arcane magic, he is inevitably sought after by other arcane masters to become their apprentice. Once he becomes an apprentice, even an arcane apprentice is an absolute main force in a typical adventure team.

After all, there is no concept of spell levels in this world. Apprentices are just those with long wind-up times. As long as there is enough time to gather enough magic power through the ritual field to drive the ritual, an apprentice can still unleash a dense barrage of bullets like a rocket launcher, blasting all enemies to smithereens.

Of course, in reality, there won't be any enemies watching you sing, dance, and rap for eight hours straight, and even an apprentice in arcane arts wouldn't have the physical strength and energy to sustain that. Even so, if the goal is simply to pose a threat and inflict damage on the enemy, then being an apprentice is sufficient.

More advanced arcane mages in an adventure team simply have faster reaction speeds, receive more spell support, and master more subdomains of arcane magic. For example, Lai only knows the spells of the Elemental Source - Water Element Domain - Water Subdomain, and her next step is to learn the spells of the adjacent subdomain of the Water Subdomain, "Acid Subdomain".

Essentially, water magic is about manipulating and summoning various liquids. Water is the most basic subdomain, and acids, oils, and so on are also included. More advanced versions can even summon fuel oil. By also mastering the fire subdomain, one can create powerful fire sea spells.

This is also a place to measure the practical skill level of an arcane mage. In a sense, Livia is actually quite bad at the details of spell operation. She is a standard theorist. But no matter how much you, as a practical practitioner, despise her, you can't change the fact that she can show you what an elemental storm is.

Because of Ray's identity, his former companions did not make things difficult for them, and instead made Rosa hand over the supplies she had secretly hidden, tacitly acknowledging that they were entitled to distribute and enjoy these supplies.

Since the original "Demon Slayer" adventure group had many members, including many high-level professionals, even though Rosa only hid a small portion of the supplies, it was enough for them to live comfortably here.

At least they eat much better than those truly unlucky adventurers. However, with transportation to the camp cut off and the previous invasion of the Wrathful Demons depleting supplies, they figured even Master Roach and his group would have to endure such meager rations.

But... freshly chopped light gray firewood burned fiercely in the stove, and sliced ​​mushrooms, large chunks of cured meat, and peas floated in the boiling soup pot. Alessina sat by the stove, holding a thick radish in his hand, peeling it with a knife, and occasionally squeezing it hard to prevent it from jumping out of his hand.

The chopped radish was also thrown into the soup pot. As it was stirred, large pieces of animal bones floated to the surface, emitting a strong, fresh aroma. Leslie took a few cloves of garlic from the wooden post and began peeling them. After crushing the garlic, she added it to the soup.

Finally, the thin ramen that Roch invented, but only Alessina could make, was thrown into the soup pot. After it was cooked, a large spoonful of rich bone broth was poured on top. The umami of the animal bone broth, the saltiness of the cured meat, the spiciness of the old radish, plus the flavor of pepper and other spices, resulted in a large bowl of animal bone broth ramen that made even the little witch, whose appetite was still not very good, blush with excitement.

"Slurp~" "It feels like we're on a camping trip!"

“Well, the money spent on purchasing supplies is enough for us to live in the city at the highest standard for a whole year,” Vivi glanced at Leslie and said. “So, right now, our standard of living is built on gold coins every single second.” But no one felt anything was wrong. There were only two cleaver-wielding classes here, one of whom was a high-level warrior, and the rest were pampered spellcasters.

Meanwhile, an uninvited group of guests arrived at the edge of the forest.

Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Witch Wants Some Fun

On the outskirts of the Black Forest, a group of people moved slowly forward, trudging through the snow and slippery rocks. Thick white cloaks covered their entire bodies, and rough cloth face coverings protected their faces from the oncoming cold wind. This group of a dozen or so people were all dressed similarly, except that some carried swords and shields on their backs, while others carried canes or crossbows.

Judging from their attire, they were a fairly large adventure group. However, under normal circumstances, no adventure group would enter the Black Forest during this season, especially a large one. The more people there are, the more likely they are to attract the attention of the forest spirits wandering around during this season.

The person at the front was slender and short. Strands of hair, which gradually changed color from white to red, peeked out from under the cloak. The red ends were as bright as blood and seemed to be slowly wriggling on them. Rather than hair, they looked more like a clump of tentacles.

Everyone remained silent, following the person at the front with the same steady steps, but strange physical structures were always revealed beneath their heavy robes, which they then covered up again.

After crossing the outer edge of the Black Forest, the leader looked up at the sky, paused slightly on the staff carved with a semi-pupaous insect, and gestured for the group to stop and rest. "That thing is just ahead, why should we stop?" A clear, deep female voice came from under the cloak. She deliberately lowered her voice to feign composure, but the slight tremor in her voice betrayed her panic.

"..." The leader did not answer her question, staring at the stone disc in his hand, which was about one-fifth broken. The intricate engravings slowly moved like breathing, as if it were not a stone, but a living being.

After watching for about ten minutes, it replied with a strange sound like countless insects rustling together, "That thing's power is starting to weaken. It has either suffered serious damage or the seal on its body has been strengthened."

"Shouldn't we take this opportunity to speed things up?" The target's power is weakening, increasing the success rate. "This means the guardian is nearby, or..." The leader's last words were hidden in countless strange rustling sounds, as if countless worms were slowly wriggling beneath his robes.

"Achoo!" "Ugh~" Livia skillfully rubbed her little nose, looking somewhat listless, but much better than before. On the wooden table in front of her was a strange magic book.

The cover is carved from stone, and the dark green stone feels somewhat sticky to the touch. Each page makes a damp, muffled sound when turned, like mucous membrane being torn apart. On the pages, strange, encrypted text is written in an extremely unsettling green color.

The steam rising from the hot black tea beside her seemed to be radiated by the power of the book, twisting into countless bizarre shapes until it was caught by Livia. She calmly picked up the black tea with one hand, took a small sip, and placed the other hand on the page. Her delicate, crystal-clear fingernails lifted the corner of the page, easily turning the page that might have been carrying a malevolent curse.

Different mages have different encryption methods, which are usually related to their expertise in arcane spells and ritual design. Therefore, the main way for mages to study and train is to read magic books. The text recorded in the magic books is secondary; what is truly important is the encryption method of each word in the book, which represents the author's knowledge system.

For example, the text in this book is based on the ancient Luster language and incorporates some basic variations of the dragon language. When you read it, the first step is to decipher the encrypted text in order to understand the author's era and cultural knowledge system.

Based on this, they then learn about the curses or encryption methods attached to the book, and by combining the text in the book, they gradually decipher and master the knowledge and skills in the magic book. In other words, this is why it takes so many years for sorcerers to decipher a magic book, and they also need to consult a lot of information and even conduct many experiments.

For the little witch, this process is also necessary; otherwise, reading magic books would really just be reading stories. This is because many magic books don't even have any substantial content. The content might just be the spellcaster's own experimental records and data comparisons. If you don't decipher the secrets on the pages, you won't know what kind of experiments the person was conducting or what the data was used for.

"So weak..." The little guy frowned slightly, his light golden eyebrows furrowing as he turned the book back to the beginning. "The Crown of Sin?"

I don't quite understand this kind of flamboyant style. The content is fine, it's just the whole process of an experiment, but the arcane rituals attached to it are basically gimmicks, and the impact is not even as great as the sinful magic power that it constantly draws in and releases.

"Sigh~" The little witch sighed loudly. These occultists all had this common problem: they liked to give their works very flamboyant names. She had seen this kind of thing before.