A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"..." Bray took a few steps toward Eric, puzzled.

Then he watched in shock as Eric scooped up a handful of mud from the ground.

The moment the silt left the ground, it seemed to come alive; instead of dispersing, it began to writhe like a slime.

"Soldier, let go."

Upon hearing this, Eric shook off the mud, and then Bray used his sword to cut away the resurrected mud.

"I knew this would happen." Eric muttered to himself, feeling a bit speechless. Luckily, he had let Bray come closer.

Outside the safe zone, nothing is truly still; even the soil can come to life.

"What are you doing..." Bray looked at Eric's hand in confusion.

Although nothing remained on the other person's hand and they were not negatively affected, the action was quite dangerous.

“Test what exactly this thing is,” Eric said.

"Everything unknown needs to be tested, otherwise what do you think expeditions are for?"

"Alice, write down everything I'm about to say."

Of course, testing is testing, but Eric is not an experimental fanatic and never intended to bring these things back to the safe zone.

After all, Bray also admitted that the safe zone cannot reverse what has already been changed.

Bringing back unknown and dangerous items is incredibly dangerous.

---

PS: I have to go out tonight, so I won't have time for two consecutive updates. The second update will be quite late. The expedition team then threw fire and ice at the mud in front of them, but it had no effect at all.

The silt only changes when it leaves the ground, so the most effective way to do this is by exploding it and picking up the silt.

The way the mud, which seemed to come alive, was somewhat eerie.

However, once this thing is submerged in the mud, it will remain quiet.

It looks calm and peaceful, but if you think about it carefully, you realize that this place is made up of writhing "slime" piled up everywhere, which makes your scalp tingle.

The expedition team even discovered later that there was a lot of rotten wood in the silt.

Normally, trees buried in such conditions would rot completely.

The fact that the rotten wood that remained after two years was truly awe-inspiring.

"Wow, did you guys do this before?" Naruko asked, playing with the mud in her arm armor.

Since Naruko didn't have direct contact, Bray, though watching from the sidelines, didn't stop her.

“No, not as fierce as you.” Eric looked at Naruko with an expression of utter defeat, as if he were admitting defeat.

"..." Levy stood to the side, watching the wriggling mud with a very subtle gaze, her tail wagging rapidly.

Levy might be having some very terrifying thoughts at this time.

"Whoa! Fireball, fire-breathing! Fire-breathing! This thing can jump!" Naruko suddenly shouted.

The lump of mud, unwilling to be toyed with by Naruko, stubbornly bounced up.

Unfortunately, the stubborn mud was not extinguished by the fireball's casual burst of flames.

"This thing becomes flammable once it leaves the ground?" Eric raised an eyebrow, looking at the mud burning to ashes in mid-air, and muttered to himself.

Seeing the mud being burned to ash, Levy's eyes showed a faint disappointment, as if some expectation had been shattered.

It seemed like we hadn't done much, but before we knew it, evening had arrived.

Having conducted their investigation, the group set up camp and rested a few hours later, far from the muddy ground.

We spent the entire half-day investigating this strange muddy ground.

Luo Shiqi, that brat, was also brought over, but Eric didn't give him any personal guidance, leaving others to lead the investigation.

Luo Shiqi never took the initiative to come over, silently learning from the survivors of the previous expeditions.

Several times, Bray glanced in the direction the boy was, but didn't go over.

As night fell, Bray lay near the campfire, gazing up at the night sky covered by a pale purple curtain of light.

The scenery is different every night, and tonight's pale purple is quite fitting for the night.

Bray spent most of the day investigating, and although there was no fight, he felt extremely tired.

The purple crystalline ground and gray-black soil inside the capital were confirmed to be safe only after the expedition team investigated.

There were also many unsettling things, which were intelligence handed over by the expedition team after their return.

He recalled Eric's fear of death and his hands-on struggle with the mud... his feelings were complicated.

The expedition team took turns on night duty, and each time only a few people rested while most people were on duty.

It's quite different from a regular night watch, probably because it's outside the safe zone, and by the time you wake someone up, it's already too late.

With a large group, they could even carry those who hadn't yet woken up and run away.

---

The next day, as soon as Bray got up, he noticed that Eric had left the camp and was crouching in the muddy area some distance away.

Out of curiosity, Bray walked up behind Eric.

“This muddy ground will expand.” Eric didn’t even turn his head, but he knew it was Bray who had come up behind him.

The footsteps were so obvious that you didn't even need to try to tell who it was.

"How did you figure that out?" Bray was astonished; he had no idea where the muddy ground could expand.

“This stone wasn’t here yesterday, and today it’s even swallowed up a small part of it,” Eric said, pointing to an inconspicuous spot.

"You figured that out just like that?" Bray looked incredulous.

"It seems that it can be pushed out a few centimeters in one night."

“Of course, this is just the result of one day’s observations, and it’s not accurate enough,” Eric said, ignoring Bray’s surprise.

"But if it really grows only a few centimeters a day, the safety zone of the capital will be in danger in the long run."

"..." Bray had never encountered this situation before, so he didn't know how to answer.

Fortunately, Eric hadn't initially expected Bray to offer any useful advice; he simply wanted Bray to know the situation.

This adventurer is qualified to know the various conditions of the safe zone.

"Let's leave this place for now." Eric shook his head and stood up.

"Just give up?"

"This thing won't threaten the safe zone for at least ten years, so let's continue exploring outwards." If these things don't grow exponentially, it will take at least a decade to threaten the safe zone.

Even if this thing grows exponentially, it will still take several years, so it is not the biggest threat to the safe zone.

"There might be something even more disgusting further away."

After informing the other members of the expedition about the possible occurrences, Eric ordered everyone to continue onward.

“Aren’t you going to say anything to that kid?” Bray suddenly asked.

“What are you talking about? Those who have survived can teach him more about ‘how to survive’,” Eric said nonchalantly.

“He is just one of us, there is no need to treat him differently. Since he is here, he should be aware of that.”

“Those who might need someone to take care of them won’t be brought—you didn’t bring your daughter either, did you?”

“…” Bray was speechless after Eric’s words.

Because that's indeed the case, Bray wasn't worried about Naruko and Levy at all, which is why he came with them.

"Buzz—" Just then, a muffled sound echoed in Eric and Bray's ears.

The sound was not loud or noticeable, and most people who heard it would not pay attention to it.

Moreover, the sound only rang once and lasted for less than three seconds.

The passersby were even less likely to care.

However, this faint sound was the expedition's alarm.

"Come on, we're about to fight." Eric frowned sharply and slapped Penny's shoulder hard.

"Hurry up and get on it."

"..." Although Bray knew that if he came here, he would definitely be used as a thug by the soldiers.

But Eric was being far too direct.

However, after being patted, Bray obediently ran back to the camp.

"If we don't hurry, someone will die," Eric added fuel to the fire.

“I know…” Bray muttered.

Eric jogged to catch up, wondering what could possibly have come in broad daylight.

Silver-grade? No... that thing used a different alarm sound, a more muffled, inconspicuous one. Bray initially thought the alarm that sounded for the expedition was some kind of monster.

But when he got to the front, he found that it wasn't like that at all.

The expedition was met with a large number of zombies.

"What is this? The work of a necromancer?" From afar, Bray could hear some members of the expedition complaining.

"Stop complaining, be careful, don't disturb them."

Bray listened to the expedition members' conversation, his gaze fixed on the group of undead at the front.

These things are neither zombies resurrected by magic, nor monsters created from concepts.

That's exactly what made Bray find it strange.

With his mind's eye open, he observed all the walking dead. In Bray's perception, these things were the product of corpses and souls, and they appeared without any external interference.

Unlike the zombies described in many books, the Walking Dead don't pounce on people; they just wander aimlessly.

Wandering aimlessly, without making a sound.

But it was precisely this quietness that made the scene even more eerie—even during the day, everyone felt as if it were the dead of night.

"Shh, Bray, lie down." Naruko pressed Bray to the ground, putting her finger to her lips to signal him to be quiet.

"..." Bray stared expressionlessly at Naruko, who had taken it upon herself to do so.

However, he ignored Naruko and stood up to continue examining the walking corpses.

"Don't be impulsive... Also, I feel sorry for these things, so please don't cut them." Naruko pulled Bray back, her words sounding like a joke.

But Bray noticed her eyes; she didn't seem to be joking... nor did she look like a lovesick idiot.

However, Naruko's words made Bray ponder for a few seconds. These things felt very familiar to him, just like the dead in the "Wandering Tomb".

Similarly, it is unconscious, simply wandering around in one place.

However, such deceased individuals can only appear in the "Wandering Tomb," so what exactly is this thing in front of me?

"Are there any casualties?" Eric, who arrived later, immediately asked about the casualties.

“There were no casualties... These things don’t seem to attack on their own,” an expedition member told Eric.

They were also frightened by these things they had never seen before, which is why the alarm went off.

Looking around, there were countless walking corpses moving about silently, no wonder it was frightening.

This scene is exactly the same as the legendary scene of a wicked necromancer unleashing his ultimate attack.

After confirming the information with many members of the expedition team, Eric decided to bypass the endless horde of zombies.

Aside from Bray, everyone else thought it was either magic or the work of those silver-level beings.

“Levy?” Bray suddenly noticed that Levy was standing and looking at the group of zombies.

Levy looked at the group of zombies with a mixture of confusion and pity in her eyes.

“Brave, these dead people look so pitiful.” Levy wagged her tail, tugged at Bray’s clothes, and said with a 0A0 expression.

"These dead people?"

"Hmm." Levy nodded, though it was unclear why she said that.