Volume 1: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 5: Genius and Shambler
On the altar is a statue of the hungry lady Camilla.
It was a morbid female statue made of colorful fungi. From a distance, it looked like a rotten and festering tumor, or something else uncomfortable.
But if you look closely, you can feel a certain evil beauty in it.
"I lost contact with two fragments in that ruin."
The monster who was sitting at the foot of the altar and staring at the statue of the goddess suddenly spoke.
It was a monster as fat as a mountain of flesh, holding a rusty short knife in its hand, and with horns on its head that were twisted and tangled like dead branches. It was very tall, and even when sitting, it was much taller than an average adult man. It was deformed, with strange tumors growing all over its body, and its skin was covered with signs of festering and corruption.
"Do you want to go take a look?"
The one who answered was a man in a gray cloak who sat on the other side of the altar, holding a leaden staff.
His physique could be described as strong, but compared to the monster next to him, he looked very thin.
"No need for that. The best time for the anchoring ceremony is almost here. As long as the contract of this body is completely anchored deep in your soul, my range of action will not be restricted by this altar. By then, whether this place is discovered by the outside world or not will not affect our next actions."
The monster holding the rusty knife answered in a dull voice.
"Before we leave, we can even treat the people in the town at the foot of the mountain to a bite."
"Don't be so ostentatious, white ringworm."
The man in gray robe gave a reminder.
"Even though the church in Blackwater Province is several levels weaker than other places in the empire, if we make too much noise, it will still attract the Sealed Temple to investigate. If that happens, it will affect the plans of our master, and no one will be able to benefit from it."
"Speaking of swagger..."
Perhaps dissatisfied with the other party's attitude, the monster named White Ringworm narrowed its eyes.
"That's not more ostentatious than you selling the map of the ruins of the Mourn Mountains to students of Offa University. Although the ritual requires a fresh sacrifice, but in the name of archaeology, you trick students from the noble academy into coming here as sacrifices. Aren't you afraid that the parents of a missing child will hire a team of high-level adventurers to search the mountain? Or are you still upset about being expelled from Offa University, David Orbis?"
In response to the monster's provocation, the gray-robed man named David Orbis simply responded without any emotion.
"Most students in the Archaeology Department study healing and shadow spells, which are more in line with the sacrificial blood you need. Moreover, they are dumber, easier to deceive, and easier to deal with than the adventurer team. That's all."
Bai Xuan grinned and was about to say something else, but suddenly his expression changed.
"The barrier I set up outside the Scar of Sorrow was destroyed?"
"really?"
David's expression also changed slightly.
Bai Xuan closed his eyes and sensed it for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, it was broken from one point and is now collapsing."
"Is the point of destruction of the barrier coming from the direction of the ruins?"
David asked in a deep voice.
"Yes, but the method used by the other party was very primitive. He did not use any spells to break it, but used pure magic flow to destroy it."
Hearing this, David's originally solemn expression eased a little.
If you use the flow of magic power to destroy the barrier directly, the opponent is most likely a novice - either he doesn't know how to save precious magic power, or he doesn't know the technique of destroying the barrier at all.
Is it a lost explorer? Or another deceived archaeological team?
But no matter who it is, he will not let his guard down. He has been preparing for this ceremony for more than a year, and no hidden danger, no matter how small, can be treated carelessly.
"Then don't wait for the best time for the ceremony, just start anchoring without any unnecessary complications."
White Ringworm nodded its fat head to show its agreement, then it stood up and recited the obscure Moon Realm spell.
The power spread along with the spell chanted by White Ringworm, and the trees around the altar were all twisted off by an invisible force. The dead branches and leaves were scattered all over the ground. But if you look closely, you will find that the bright fungi on those dead branches and leaves began to grow continuously, and long hyphae continued to extend from them. The diseased life in this area became extremely vigorous.
…………
Zhou Mu, who was observing the situation at the altar, felt someone pulling him. He turned around and saw Liliana looking at him with a pale face.
"Let's go before they find out."
"Why?"
Zhou Mu asked doubtfully.
"I know who the man in the gray robe is. He is not a character that can be dealt with alone. Let's go down the mountain and find someone from the church to help us."
"So who is that person?"
Zhou Mu was a little curious.
"David Orbis, he was also a student at Offa University in Blackwater Province. At the age of 18, he won the seventh-level title in both the summoning and shadow fields. He was hailed as the most promising genius in Offa University in the past fifty years to reach the master level or even the legendary level."
"Is he your senior?"
Liliana shook her head vigorously.
"He was expelled from the academy two years ago for allegedly researching forbidden spells. At the time, the academy contacted the Holy Spirit Church to imprison him as a heretic wizard. As a result, he directly fought with the executors who came to arrest him. Half of the dormitory building was blown into ruins. The entire team of elite executors was unable to stop him."
The Executors are mage killers trained by the Church of the Holy Spirit specifically to target the threat posed by mages. The fact that he was able to fight an entire team of Executors and escape shows how capable he is.
"It is said that the church sent people to search his home afterwards and found a large number of human organs used in primitive secret rituals in the basement, as well as the skeletons of many deformed monsters."
At this point, Liliana spoke to Zhou Mu in an almost pleading tone.
"Even if we don't mention the Moon Realm monster beside him, a heretic wizard with at least seventh-level strength is really not something you and I can deal with alone."
Liliana's tone revealed sincerity, and Zhou Mu fell into deep thought about her words.
Zhou Mu was not very clear about what the seventh level was. In the game "End Watcher", there had never been any rating for mages - I guess this should be a standard that was made up by some person or organization during his absence of a thousand years.
But the master level and legendary realms mentioned by Liliana are indeed a reference for evaluating the strength of a spell in the game.
Apprentice, expert, master, legend, divine realm.
Each spell has an entry to indicate its rarity. Although in terms of gameplay, the higher the rarity, the stronger it is, but this is the original intention of the game planning team.
If this is not done, it is the problem of the balance group.
If analyzed in this way, the subtext of "hope to reach master level" is the ability to use expert-level spells.
But can this be called genius?
So compared to the gray-robed man who Liliana was treating as a formidable enemy, Zhou Mu paid more attention to the Moon Realm monster who was chanting the spell.
Judging from the other person's appearance, he is an old acquaintance of mine.
Shambling demon.
Zhou Mu was deeply impressed by this monster.
He remembered how torturous this thing was when he was conquering the Moon Realm dungeon "Lake of Entropy" of Ms. Hungry and Corrupted .
The level of the Shambler is around level 60-80. It is a blood-buying elite monster designed to completely abandon the power of physical and spell attacks and focus on stacking health and life recovery speed.
Of course, if it was just a blood bull monster with low attack and high defense, Zhou Mu would not have given it a torturous evaluation.
The most disgusting thing about the Shambler is that after it is injured, it will gain an aura that continuously applies abnormal status. The more health it loses, the stronger the effect of this aura will be.
It's not very threatening, but it's extremely disgusting.
Whenever a large-scale encounter occurs, if the enemy has a Shambler mixed in as a meat shield, the battle will become several levels more difficult.
But then again, if it were summoned alone, the Shambler would just be a wooden stake for measuring damage.
The wooden stake for testing damage is exactly what Zhou Mu needs most right now.
Thinking of this, he pushed aside the branches that were covering his front and walked out.
Liliana behind him was startled by his behavior, and the staggering demon and the gray-robed man named David also cast their eyes over at the same time.
"you……"
The sudden action of the man in front of her made Liliana's mind confused. For a moment, she couldn't figure out whether she should run first or blame him for his suicidal behavior, but Zhou Mu turned around and patted her shoulder at this time.
"Don't worry, don't worry. Didn't I tell you this before? Let's solve the source of the problem first."
His words reminded Liliana of her archaeological team and the people who risked their lives to cover her escape.
"but……"
"Oh, I almost forgot."
Zhou Mu said as he took off an ancient sunbird pendant from his neck and placed it in Liliana's hand.
"The air is going to get really bad here soon, put this on."
Liliana subconsciously took the quaint pendant, and the moment it touched her skin, a warm current began to flow through her blood.
Have you ever had an enchanted pendant?
But she had never heard of any enchanted pendant that could have such an obvious effect even before it was worn.
When she came to her senses, the man was already about twenty steps away from the altar.
David Orbis stood up holding the lead-colored staff. He looked back at the white ringworm behind him who was about to complete the ceremony, and then looked at the man with white hair and silver eyes.
"Nice to meet you, unknown magic caster."
He said very politely.
"Nice to meet you, the genius from some university, and the staggering demon behind you."
