Witch Troupe and the Undead

The little witch appeared before Alessina, one hand on her hat and the other holding her cane. The dimensional rift behind her had just closed, and she used her amulet to locate herself and made a short-distance interdimensional jump. This is why hell mages are hated by everyone, yet rarely caught.

Of course, under normal circumstances, this spell has no other drawbacks besides its short range and ease of interception. However, for Livia, it has an additional drawback: she has to spend some time concentrating on thinking about where to jump. Expecting someone who has been staying at home for a long time and has a good sense of spatial awareness and direction to be completely lost is really asking for trouble.

“Witch…” The golden arcane eye hanging from her slightly heaving chest made “Jealousy” retreat a little more, while her companion “Blind Faith” raised her hand and summoned a winding wall of light to block the two of them.

"A major sin?" Livia tilted her head, the kind that had gone astray. In the past, if a righteous major sin mage saw this, it would basically be a fight to the death. However, a proper major sin mage was far more powerful than any other profession when dealing with these guys.

They have perfectly grasped the boundaries of sin and punishment, and understand the limits of so-called "evil," reaching the level of "doing whatever they want without overstepping the bounds." Just like a typical arcane mage fighting a little witch, she can even use the elements gathered by the opponent to directly unleash an elemental explosion on the other side.

Now, these sinful mages are fighting against both the little witch and a sinful mage who walks the righteous path.

"Hmm... the Wall of Ignorance?" The Wall of Ignorance is a defensive barrier often used by great sin mages. Ignorance is the fanatical rejection of anything beyond one's own understanding. It is distinctly different from stupidity or ignorance. After all, stupidity and ignorance are not wrong, but ignorance is.

This magical barrier can block anything the caster refuses to acknowledge or believe, whether it's a physical or magical attack, and it's most effective against unknown attacks. Conversely, the more clearly understood and believed something is, the weaker the defense becomes.

"Ah..." Her small mouth opened slightly, somewhat stunned. Why throw the Wall of Ignorance at this time? She couldn't understand it, but her hands had already begun to move. Spiritual mystical runes bloomed from her palms, and her staff was suddenly plunged into the ground. A phantom flag appeared above the staff, giving everyone a feeling of full confidence.

"A victory inspiration ritual!?" As a mystical spell, the ritual takes time to unfold and gather, and with so few people present, it's hard to believe...

"Not good! Blind faith, step back!" The only person here who blindly believes in everything is right here. Even the Little Witch can't conjure something out of thin air with arcane rituals and spells. There's only one person here, so the encouragement she provides is almost negligible. But her purpose isn't to boost her teammates.

“Alessina…” Livia turned to the fox girl beside her, her little finger pointing to “Blind Faith” behind the protective barrier, “Cut him down!”

"Alright!" As a pure warrior who usually chooses to throw her brains away in this situation, the fox girl's figure suddenly disappeared from the spot, and a large handful of snowflakes exploded behind her. Her extraordinary martial skill [Lightning Blade] pierced the protective barrier with the greatsword like lightning. The barrier, which could have withstood at least one attack from a kitchen knife, shattered.

However, Alessina failed to strike Blind Faith, instead abruptly switching places with Jealousy. The greatsword nearly slipped from his hand and cleaved a black pine tree in half, causing the tall tree to crash to the ground.

"Go!" Such a commotion could not go unnoticed by the Imperial Investigation Team. Jealousy grabbed Blind Faith, who was completely blind and relied on his companions for guidance, and ran away. As they ran, large amounts of black and red cursed thorns spread out in all directions.

"Curse?" Curse spells are an important branch of Sin Mage, and the Envy Subdomain contains the most curse spells. After all, envy itself is a curse, whether it is one's own or that of others. Or rather, it would be inconceivable for an envious person not to curse those who are better or more outstanding than themselves.

"I hate the Jealousy Domain!" The little witch stomped her foot. The Jealousy Domain is characterized by almost no offensive, defensive, restorative, or functional abilities. Its only strengths are its ability to escape and annoy people. It can easily cast a curse that can't be lifted for at least six months, and various teleportation and position-swapping spells are constantly being introduced. After all, the essence of jealousy is to hate that others have it and wish you could take their place.

It took the little witch almost an entire afternoon to clear away so many cursed thorns. When the last clump of thorns was burned away by the silver fire, her stamina, which was as weak as a fish, almost gave out.

"What happened!?" When Augros arrived with soldiers and a sorcerer, the little guy started sneezing incessantly again. It seemed his cold hadn't fully healed, and the wind had exhausted him, causing it to worsen.

Fortunately, there was enough common cold medicine available this time. After taking the medicine, the little one lay back down in her rocking chair, looking sick, her face scrunched up from the illness and the smell of the medicine.

On the second floor of the inn, in the meeting room converted from two storage rooms, Roach and the others were the last to arrive. They mainly needed to wait until Livia fell asleep before they could leave. Even so, the useless Leslie had to stay and take care of her.

"Master Roach and Miss Alessina, could you tell me what happened before?"

“I led a small team to collect herbs for Livia, and then one of us got lost. While looking for her, we encountered some suspicious people.”

"Where is it?" Augros spread out a map of the surrounding area, which was drawn by hired adventurers. It only had a simple description of the terrain, with some areas marked as monster activity zones. As for detailed information, there was none at all. At most, there were a few markers near the camp, usually rock-spired directional signs.

“I’m not sure, it should be near the area where Silver Velvet Sawtooth Grass grows.” “Then it should be in this location.” Lumes drew a circle on the map with his charcoal pencil.

"So, when we discovered it, it was actually at the location of the incident?"

“About that.” Alessina thought for a moment and felt that they hadn’t moved too far, so he nodded. “They’ve probably walked about 300 to 400 yards.”

"That's quite a large area." In other places, this area can be further narrowed down, but it becomes a bit difficult when considering the environment of the Black Forest.

"So, do you know who the attackers are?"

"I don't know, but Livia said it should be a Great Sin Mage, or a Sinful Mage."

"This is tricky," Commander Augros said with a headache. If it were a hell mage or a necromancer, it would be easy to deal with, since these two things are quite common in the human world. Every now and then, a few unskilled individuals would pop up trying to make a splash in the city or nearby villages.

However, the Great Sin Mage has been absent for a long time. Since the destruction of the Kingdom of Gurust, this type of mage activity has been completely invisible on the surface. Occasionally, a few will appear, but they will only be a flash in the pan and disappear again soon. Therefore, even Captain Augros is unfamiliar with what kind of magic these Great Sin Mages, or rather, Sinful Mages, are.

An unfamiliar enemy is a more troublesome opponent than a dangerous enemy. A dangerous enemy can be avoided or the danger reduced by taking various measures, but it is hard to say what the situation is with an unfamiliar enemy.

"There are still two and a half months before the roads are open in the spring. We must hold on until the Empire sends a new team."

"Excuse me, Commander Augros, are you sure the Empire will send someone over?"

“Yes…” Augros hesitated for a moment, looking at the people present. Roach glanced at the four newcomers, signaling them to leave first. Then, after Alessina had left and only the two of them remained, he spoke, “According to my inside information, the Imperial Intelligence Bureau is sending their elite team here, led by Lord Ryan.”

"Lord?" Roach was no longer the clueless newcomer he once was, but he was now only familiar with parts of Lywood County and some basic knowledge, limited to the Imperial District.

A lord is a special title in the Empire. In the official language of the Empire, it can also be translated as "a nobleman who is not a nobleman." It refers to special talents who cannot or are not eligible to be granted a noble title, but who enjoy the same treatment and status as nobles.

Generally, there are three ranks. The lowest rank, the third rank, is usually granted to foreign adventurers. They do not enjoy fiefdoms, annuities, or jurisdiction. They only have the right to enter and leave the country without approval and to be exempt from city gate taxes and inspections. However, this is time-limited and will be canceled after a certain period.

The second-class lordship was granted to merchants who were ineligible for noble titles. They enjoyed the same privileges as barons, including tax exemptions, but were required to pay a fixed annual tribute.

The most special category is the First Class Lords, who are those who, due to oaths, status, race, or other reasons, are unable to perform the ceremony of pledging allegiance to the Emperor and be granted the title of noble. They enjoy privileges equivalent to those of an earl, and the national treasury will regularly allocate an annuity to them as compensation for not having land or direct knights and nobles.

Luo Qi quickly grasped the difference between the three levels: the scholar, the merchant or landowner who bought a position as a junior official, and the honorary position of Shangzhuguo, which was just a job with money but no real work.

"Lord Ryan is a dwarf fighter..."

"Ah, a dwarf?" Usually, someone named Ryan should be either a handsome young man or a dignified and shrewd middle-aged man, and should have either blond or silver hair, and be tall and burly. This name doesn't fit the race of "dwarf," does it?

"The Empire does not allow non-human races to become nobles, so Lord Ryan can only be a lord. However, don't underestimate him just because he's a dwarf. As the ace of the Military Intelligence Bureau..."

"Wait a minute. Even you know what he looks like, how can he work?" If a spy or intelligence agent is known to even a mid-to-lower-level officer like Commander Augross about what he looks like and what his background is, how can he get anything done?

"Um... Lord Ryan is from Military Intelligence Bureau... um, the director, he doesn't handle things personally."

“Oh~” Roach understood, the head of the special agent team or rather, the intelligence agency clerk.

"Then why did you say he was difficult to deal with?"

"Because he manages the money."

"..." I see. It's because your investigation team hasn't produced any results here, just wasting money every month, and now you've even retreated from your original camp to this location. So, the intelligence agency's accountant came to investigate you, right? Then the other side must have brought enough force.

"Now that he's here, has anything changed?"

"Yes, Lord Ryan never travels alone, and this matter is extremely important, so he will bring a large number of attendants and armed guards. In addition to him, the Imperial Royal Academy and the Grand Archives will also send a group of scholars and mages to study the barrier here. This plan was formulated in the summer."

Simply put, it was a journey that was planned before the barrier incident. The reason it hasn't arrived yet is because this world has no trains or airships, and transportation relies on land and water. It does take quite a bit of time to travel from the core area of ​​the empire to the [Lost Royal City in the Desolate Lands] in the north of Rock Tower County.

The reason there are no trains is not because they can't be invented. In fact, Roach had seen similar prototypes in Hearth City, and short-distance steam trains were widely used in places like mines. The real reason is that you can't stop monsters from cutting off the tracks, and you can't stop adventurers from cutting off the tracks either.

Doing this kind of work on Earth might get you caught by the railway patrol, and the rails are difficult to handle, plus the price of steel is low and they're heavy.

But this world is different. Adventurers can run away very fast, and the railway patrols may not be able to catch them. Then, the price of steel is not low, especially the alloys that have been treated with alchemy. Finally, the rails are very easy to deal with. Putting aside everything else, with Alessina's weapons and physical strength, he can cut them all into pieces, pack them up, and sell them as scrap steel.

"So what you mean now is..."

"We need to seal off the camp, prohibit adventurers from entering or leaving, bring everyone back, and reinforce the camp's defenses, if Lady Livia has the time..."

"Oh, she's busy, she has a cold."

"Ah..." Augros opened his mouth. A potion master and gold-level arcane mage said she had a cold. Well, if she didn't want to come, she could have just said so. No one would blame her. This excuse was too clumsy.

"However, I can set up barriers, including traps." Rune Source Sorcerers are also alchemists, and they can certainly create large rune devices to generate a defensive or early warning barrier.

"But what about the food and alchemical materials consumed by the barrier if we close the camp?"

"We can conserve food supplies, and our casualties are far more severe than expected. There are still plenty of reserves in the underground warehouse." After all, the climate here isn't like this for the first time. When the investigation team arrived, this station was used as a transit point for rear supply, and it has enough food to last the entire investigation team for half a year.

Although it consisted mainly of dry flour, sausages, cheese, cured meat, and dried peas and chickpeas, at least people wouldn't starve or face a food crisis.

"The second question is, what about fuel?"

As soon as Roach heard the words, "We have no choice but to gather everyone together," he knew why Roach had come to him. After all, if they needed to keep warm together, the bathhouse he had built was the most suitable, and if the adventurers couldn't go out to work, they might not have money to spend.

“We will pay for this, and it will be deducted from the adventurers’ rewards later,” Augros said, a pleading look on his face. Roach knew he meant a discounted price.

"Okay, this is the best solution, but these buildings simply can't accommodate that many people."

"We will mobilize the adventurers to expand the building as much as possible with the materials they have on hand in the next few days. Those who really can't sleep will have to squeeze in with my soldiers."

There are both demons and mysterious high-ranking mages outside, and the most powerful high-level professionals here clearly don't want to get involved. So this is just how it is. We'll be free once the reinforcements from the Empire arrive.

"The third question is, are all adventurers prohibited from going out, or is it limited to adventurers only here?"

“In principle, no one is allowed to go out.” Roach nodded. In principle, no one is allowed to go out, but in reality, some people are allowed to. It’s obvious who they are without needing to be told.

"Then I understand."

"I will announce this soon, and I hope Master Roch will lend me his assistance." Commander Augros took out a small bag from the drawer with a pained expression. Inside were glittering gold nuggets. Yes, not gold coins, but smelted gold nuggets. The purity was not very high, but considering the size and weight, they were worth at least 200 gold coins.

This is something he has painstakingly saved up over the past two years in this godforsaken place near the empire's border. How exactly did he save it up?

It involves using the pretext of inspecting recyclables to extract quest items submitted by adventurers, such as ancient gold coins, scraped pieces from gold and silver artifacts, which are then melted down into small gold nuggets once a portion is collected. Additionally, gold dust from the outer ruins and Dragon Castle Mountains is also melted down.

It was his last savings, but now that he might lose his life, money wasn't so important anymore.

Seeing Roach accept the money, Captain Augros breathed a sigh of relief. He had very few spellcasters under his command, which was exactly what he needed most right now.

Chapter 101 Facing the Enemy

Fortifying the camp walls didn't cause any trouble; nobody wanted to spend two and a half months in a drafty place, especially in the dangerous Black Forest. However, prohibiting adventurers from venturing out was problematic.

The adventurers who come here are not weak; they are mostly elite or skilled adventurers. Long-term survival in the Black Forest is a bit difficult, but searching for prey and materials in the Black Forest by relying on the camp is not a problem at all.

This means they would have to waste two and a half months without any income. Even if the blockade were lifted by then, their supplies would be almost exhausted, and they wouldn't even have enough to buy new adventure supplies from the traveling merchants who arrive with reinforcements.

Roach didn't know how Augros had convinced the adventurers, but no one bothered him while he was setting up the barriers and traps. Roach's traps were simple: pairs of fully charged runestones were buried in a cross shape, with a vertically placed cylinder filled with alchemical materials in the center, and a glass tube containing about 2 milliliters of elemental essence in the center.

Anyone who steps on it will shatter the glass tube, and the essence will seep into the alchemical materials, turning the cylinder into a releaser that emits intense runic energy. The releaser will activate the runestone, which serves as the primary explosive material.

To maximize its destructive power, Roach added a layer of obsidian with high magic resistance to this structure, making it difficult for elemental explosions to be released inside, instead releasing them through several small holes in the obsidian sealed with inferior anti-magic materials.

During the experiment, it forms a highly penetrating cone-shaped elemental ray that shoots upwards. It must be said that the effect of the magic mine is significantly different from that of a simple gunpowder explosion.

Because it consists of two pairs of runestones, the resulting mixed ray is not only powerful, but it is also formed by four opposing elements in pairs. When it hits anything, it will trigger an even more intense secondary elemental explosion.

Runestones, releasers, triggers, and transmission lines—four simple modules—were assembled by Roach into a vast number of magical mines, which he then sent to Tex and his three companions to lay outside.

Besides those buried in the ground, there are also those tied to trees, using a strand of Leslie's hair as a tripwire. Once a creature passes by, it will trigger the square alchemical bombs tied to the trees on both sides. Under the guidance of the Directional Bomb talent, the effects of these alchemical bombs will form a clear long strip or cone-shaped cross-coverage area.

With a calm expression, Roach embedded smaller, soft, rubbery pellets made from a mixture of essence and firegrass into the small holes in the obsidian slabs. These perforated obsidian slabs were obtained by Old Ma from the first level of Hell; they were not magical materials and were found everywhere in Hell.

Although it has high magic resistance properties, it is very brittle and cannot be used to make weapons or armor. At most, a layer of magic resistance coating can be applied, but the effect is not very good. However, it is suitable for this purpose.

These box-shaped tripwire mines contain the latest research results of Roach and the Little Witch. From the perspective of wind element being a different manifestation of composite elements, they successfully created "dynamic element" essence and deduced its corresponding ritual array and simple paradigm structure. Therefore, when this thing explodes, it will spray countless high-speed projectiles in a directional direction, and each projectile will cause an effect equivalent to a small fireball explosion.

In addition to the traditional alchemical high-explosive bombs (gelatinous spheres), Roach also asked the only priest to make a batch of holy bombs made of holy water, amethyst, silver powder and evergreen leaves, which were placed alternately with tripwire alchemical bombs.

The treetops, trees, roots, shrubs, and soil were all filled with Roach's explosive traps. It was as if all that was missing was a barbed wire fence, sandbags, and machine guns. Hmm, it really did look like there were machine guns.

The "Storm Crossbow," made of a secondary energy sword paradigm with small metal arrowheads and a square frame, was mounted on the watchtower. The entire system could be manually detonated with a rune disk as long as the user wasn't too far away. You might think this was a passive trap? In reality, it was a weapon capable of active attack.

The work of burying the wires was done by Alessina. A large amount of inferior gemstone powder outlined a huge spider web-like structure on the ground. Every certain distance, a runestone and a corresponding device would be buried. The design of the barrier was done by the little witch while enduring a headache from a cold.

After all the work was completed, a distorted and void-like magical wall appeared on the outskirts of the camp, like a crystal-cast maze, a high-level defensive ritual array of the [Mental Maze] mental source.

It requires a complex ritual setting, such as these gemstone powders, silver powders and amethyst inlays, with several ritual markers as the core. Due to the rudimentary conditions, several mithril daggers provided by Augros were used to pin the ritual nodes.

When it was activated, it was the little witch who activated it. Even if a normal sorcerer had set up the ritual field, it would be difficult to guide enough magic to connect the entire circuit in a short time. However, if you let Livia do it, it's done with a simple clap of her hand.

“These ritual nodes must be protected, whether it’s the rune plate that serves as the motherboard or these amethyst blocks that serve as the CPU,” Roach said, using a metaphor that no one could understand.

"These mithril daggers are the same. Also, when going in and out, do not step on the lines drawn with gemstone powder on the ground. Although these powders will not be blown away by the wind or easily crushed after the ritual is completed, there are still considerable limits."

These are not invincible terrain features and will not remain undamaged on the battlefield where heroes clash.

According to Livia, the Mental Labyrinth is a defensive barrier specifically designed to target Sin Mages and Sin Demons. Its essence is to stretch out mental sensations, giving intruders the feeling that spacetime is being infinitely stretched.

To put it simply, it's about slowing down the other person's soul and mental reaction speed. When your nerve reaction speed is fast enough, you will have a feeling similar to time stop, while others will feel incredibly slow. Conversely, if your nerve reaction speed is slowed down to the limit, you will appear to be frozen in the eyes of others, and time and space will be stretched out to the point of being worlds apart.

"Because the most important part of the ritual of the Great Sin Spell comes from one's own contact with the corresponding Great Sin." It took Roach a lot of time to understand why there are so few righteous Great Sin Spell Masters, and why they are so easy to lose control and go astray. Simply put, the biggest prerequisite for the Great Sin Spell to not affect oneself is that all sins can only remain at the stage of "thinking" or "reflecting".

For example, when killing innocent people, you can mentally rehearse the massacre of an entire city. The clearer the details, the more realistic it is, and the more it feels like you are actually carrying out the slaughter, the more it attracts the gathering of great sin magic. However, a proper great sin mage must clearly realize that all of this is just something he did on purpose, and can only remain at the stage of thinking.

Once you start planning or truly decide in your heart to do it, it means that the power of the great sin is out of control. This is why the righteous path is weaker. No matter how realistic your simulation is, it is still fake. You have not actually violated the corresponding taboos and sins, nor do you intend to.

Therefore, the further you go and the more you practice, the greater the chance of losing control. But the further you go, the closer you get to the state of "doing whatever you want without overstepping the bounds," like in that funny four-panel comic where your mind is full of abyssal black mud, but after thinking it over, what comes out of your mouth is "love and peace."

However, within this barrier, thought or spirit will be sluggish. Simply put, one cannot think fluently, and the speed of thought becomes slow, which also slows down the guidance of the great sin magic. For the sin demons that have entered, they will be unable to maintain their own existence.

At the same time, mental defensive spells are very resistant to bombardment by major sin magic. Of course, if the opponent chooses to abandon magical bombardment and choose to use more common elemental spells or physical attacks, such as catapult attacks, they will be ineffective.

Mental magic is designed to target humans or living beings, whether for attack or defense. It is not very effective against inanimate objects. Oh, and inanimate objects here do not include undead creatures, but include things like golems and stone giants.

The second layer of the barrier is a conventional physical defense barrier driven by the rune device set up by Roach. It belongs to the barrier under the Life Branch. After activation, it will form a green curtain and quickly promote the seeds planted in advance to form a new self-repairing protective wall. Furthermore, injuries within the barrier will recover more quickly.

As for the cost, it is that it will drain the life force of the Black Forest. It will drain the life force of the Black Forest through the crisscrossing network of roots underground. If it is used too much, it will wither on a large scale, just like the eroded demon trees and dead trees on the outside, and become something even more troublesome than the Black Forest.

The third barrier is a blessing, the grace of the Goddess of Life guided by the altar set up by the clergy, which in turn nourishes the Black Forest, forming a cyclical effect. Once the final altar is in place, the triple barrier completely surrounds the camp, making it resemble a magical castle.

However, this was just an illusion. The defensive barrier set up at the original camp on the edge of the area was even stronger than this, but it was still easily broken by the horde of Sin Demons. It can only be said that the barrier at the post station camp was barely sufficient because of the weakening effect of the Sin Demons by the Black Forest.

After the last node was laid, the entire camp was completely sealed off. Now, even without any prohibition orders, no adventurer dares to go out. Just look at the dense red dots that light up in the forest when Master Roach tests those landmines after nightfall, and you'll understand.

Meanwhile, under the cover of the Great Sin Magic, the group successfully arrived at the graveyard, which was filled with Greedy Sin Demons. These demons resembled upright rats, with thick, yellowish-brown fur covering their bodies. Their mouths, filled with sharp teeth, dripped with foul-smelling saliva, and their sharp claws were constantly digging in the ground or fighting with their companions, collecting anything of value.

The more greedy demons collect, the larger they become, with countless small arms growing from their abdomens tightly gripping the jewels and burial goods, which are the source of their life and power.