Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 27 Enemies and Scholars
If we stay where we are, waiting for the confused soul of Niu Baiwan who is lost on the edge of the world to break through the endless maze and return to the human world, then my story would probably have come to an end - you know, it will obviously take longer to teach this Minotaur Paladin with cerebellar atrophy how to read a map than to let the Doomsday King destroy the world.
However, in the glorious and magnificent history of the Falvi Continent, every heroic brigade that saved the world from danger has never lacked warriors who are both smart and fearless, and we are no exception. When I was staring at the corpse of Niu Baiwan in amazement, lamenting in my heart how my Minotaur friend's fate could be so unfortunate, Nocturne in B-flat minor showed his decisiveness and wisdom. He hurriedly shouted at us: "Don't move, I'll bring him back!" Then he rushed to the large group of undead guards in front of him with his bare chest and no defense.
I have never seen this cunning dwarf bard so courageous and resolute. As a pure-blooded deep dwarf, his stature is still very short, but at this moment, I feel that his resolute back is so tall that I have an urge to look up at him from the bottom of my heart. In fact, I have been looking up at his back all the time - this is an uphill slope.
Even when facing the unarmed, shirtless dwarf bard, the guards of the Decayed, armed to the teeth, would not show the slightest mercy - the painful experience of resurrection from the dead had completely eliminated the inherent kindness in these human qualities from their souls. The gleaming blades rushed to fall on the head of Nocturne in B-flat minor, just like a violent and cruel metal storm erupting on the forehead of our dwarf friend.
Although I have never personally experienced this terrible tragedy, I believe that being chopped on the forehead by six or seven heavy swords at the same time will never leave you with any sweet and beautiful memories. However, fortunately, this painful nocturne does not need to be endured for too long. When those sword-wielding "bone guards" removed the heavy swords from his forehead for the second time, death completely freed our dwarf friend from this ruthless one-sided slaughter.
At this time, we certainly realized what Nocturne in B-flat Minor was going to do. Since waiting for Niu Baiwan's return here was really a long way off, it would be better to find someone who knew the way to accompany him to the resurrection point, and then bring his soul back from the maze of death. Facts have proved that this is indeed a good idea that works. Less than three minutes had passed, and this pair of good partners who lived and died together turned over and sat up from the ground at the same time, and successfully came back to life.
"So fast?" Ding Ding Xiaoge was very surprised at the speed of their resurrection. Because before, we were resurrected on the spot by Niu Baiwan using magic, so he asked curiously, "Where is the resurrection point?"
"It's right at the entrance of the dungeon. As soon as you walk out of the door, you're facing the cemetery..." Nocturne in B flat minor glanced at Niu Baiwan angrily, obviously very confused and puzzled by the elaborate soul journey before his last resurrection.
"Is it that close?" Although I never had any hope for Niu Baiwan's sense of direction, such an answer was still difficult for me to accept.
"How did you walk just now? Where did you go?" I asked Niu Baiwan in surprise.
"Well..." The embarrassed Minotaur Paladin was speechless.
"God knows where he ran off to just now!" Nocturne in B flat minor was full of complaints when it came to this matter - of course, if I also sacrificed Xiao Ming for no reason because of Niu Baiwan's stupidity, I'm afraid my temper wouldn't be much better than his.
"I'm afraid even ghosts don't know..." Ding Ding Xiaoge obviously thought that even Nocturne's conclusion was a bit blindly optimistic.
…
Because of the existence of the Hell Soul, Niu Baiwan no longer had to stand at the forefront with me and act as a meat shield to attract enemy attacks. This was good news for each of us: I no longer had to worry about dangerous stone pillars flying around me and being knocked off by Niu Baiwan, and Niu Baiwan no longer had to worry about his life. More importantly, the Tauren Paladin, who was freed from the battle position, had more energy to take care of his comrades. Originally, most of his healing spells had to be cast on himself, but now we can finally be illuminated and comforted by the Holy Light from time to time.
"This is called treating everyone equally..." While helping us restore our lives, Niu Baiwan proudly showed off the new words he had just learned.
"Ugh..." Nocturne in B flat minor was enjoying the healing effect of the holy magic one second ago, and the next second he immediately stared at the white light shining on his body with a disgusted expression, as if he wanted to get rid of it immediately.
"Do you know what this word means?" Ding Ding Xiaoge rolled his eyes. "If you don't know, don't fucking talk nonsense. It's really disgusting..."
"What's wrong with this word?" Niu Baiwan looked confused, not knowing what he had said wrong. Puzzled, he turned to the fairy and asked humbly, "Does this word have any special meaning?"
The fairy blushed as she descended from the earth and lowered her head shyly...
...Then he immediately transformed into a giant bear and slapped me. I only heard a crisp "crack" sound, and then Niu Baiwan's head tilted back to his back at an extremely exaggerated angle, almost turning around his neck. Just looking at his appearance made my neck twitch.
That's strange, is there anything wrong with this word?
The language habits of these people involved in the aviation industry... I really can't understand them.
Anyway, Niu Baiwan's return greatly increased our strength. We were able to deal with opponents that were difficult to deal with before. Not only that, the intensive battles were both a difficult test and a very effective exercise for each of us. When we stood at the door of the fortress dungeon and were about to face the enemy's first evil leader, the undead lich A. Vesalius, Tintin Xiaoge and Fairy Descendants had already reached level 50, and Nocturne in B-flat minor had already reached level 49.
The dungeon door was two iron bars that opened in opposite directions. It was pitch black inside, and we could only grope forward vaguely by holding onto the wall. After walking about fifty steps, two balls of purple flame appeared in front of us. The two balls of flame floated in the air, burning coldly, and people could not feel the heat of the flames, or even the warmth of the light. We followed the flames and walked forward until we were about ten steps away from them. We could see clearly that the two balls of flame were shrouded in a huge white skull, which was the soul fire of the huge decaying monster in front of us. This undead monster had the shape of an ordinary human, but in addition to a pair of arms on his shoulders, a pair of arms also grew between his ribs. He was wearing a white robe and was lying on a large stone platform. His four arms kept dancing, mixing various potions on the stone platform into an instrument called "Magic Fusion Device" in front of him.
I noticed that this instrument was like a steamer, with a large transparent container in the middle, and a round crystal tube extending outward from the center of the container. There was a valve in the middle of the tube, and from the various lights refracted from time to time in the tube, it seemed that there were many funnel-shaped filter ports in the tube - I really couldn't imagine what kind of skilled craftsman could carve the inside of the crystal tube into such a complex shape without damaging the tube wall.
In the container was a complete brain of an unknown animal, which was soaked in a smelly potion and had turned white. He poured a bottle of powder and a bottle of liquid into the container, and then gently stirred it with a long stick while chanting a strange spell in a low voice. Although I knew nothing about this spell, just listening to its strange pronunciation made me feel creepy, and a chill rushed from the bottom of my heart to my chest. As the spell was chanted, the liquid in the container gradually churned, and large bubbles rolled out from the bottom to the top.
A layer of turbid color gradually spread out from the brain as the liquid boiled. Although the color spread quickly, it never dispersed, let alone dissolved in the liquid. I couldn't even be sure whether it existed - although I saw its color, I really couldn't describe its appearance - it seemed to be a ball of gas, but it was more transparent than gas; it emitted a faint attractive luster, but I couldn't tell where this luster came from.
Finally, the mass of matter was completely separated from the brain. The undead gently turned the valve with one hand, and the mass of matter seemed to encounter some huge gravitational force and was sucked into the crystal pipe. It kept moving forward in the pipe, and every time it passed through a filter, the color became darker and the sense of its presence became stronger.
When it finally passed through the crystal tube and entered a crystal container with a five-sided magic circle carved on it, the originally turbid color had completely turned into a dark black. This black mass - I really couldn't decide what term to use to define it, maybe I could only say it was a "black thing" - this black mass regrouped and gathered in this container, gradually condensing into a sphere. I had never seen such a flawless sphere, and it gave me a strong feeling that it was rounder than all the round things in the world. This substance seemed to be unaffected by other forces or errors in the world, and it was simply the most flawless existence in the world.
There is no doubt that this undead soul who is focused on the wonderful experiment in front of him is the leader of all the corrupt here, the master and creator of the genius undead magic - A. Vesalius. Although I know that he is one of the most important and dangerous enemies of our trip, the hostility in my heart is far less than the respect for this foreign evil magician. With the knowledge of alchemy that I have painstakingly studied and mastered, I can only see that he is extracting some extremely pure essence from the animal brain, but I am completely ignorant of this extremely superb knowledge and skills. As a cruel murderer who takes human life lightly and creates a lot of killings among your compatriots, no matter how strong your hatred for him is, it is not excessive.
However, as a scholar, his profound knowledge, brilliant ideas, extraordinary understanding of the origin of matter...even if you only have a superficial understanding of all this, you can never stop your heartfelt respect and admiration for him.
This is the natural admiration of a young child who is just learning to learn on the road to knowledge for a master who stands at the pinnacle of knowledge.
It is encouraging that, as a diligent and studious young man, I obviously have more important academic value in the eyes of Mr. A. Vesalius than an ordinary apprentice...
"Ahaha, great, fresh specimens! You will make a great contribution to the study of biological souls. I should probably put your names in front of my paper to express my gratitude..."
As a half-baked alchemist, this will probably be the closest moment in my life to the pinnacle of academic achievement, right? Regarding this great honor, I actually felt a little hesitant in my heart.
"...Of course, there are more than 300 wild dogs listed before your names." As he said this, the evil necromancer laughed weirdly and pointed casually at the ball of animal brains soaked in the vessel.
I immediately drew the sword from my waist and firmly decided to decline this kind invitation.
…
In this world where all kinds of magical powers are widely used, necromancy is a relatively rare branch of magic. There are often some debates about this kind of magic. Some people think that it is a natural magic similar to elemental spells such as ice, fire, and electricity, and is caused by an unknown substance called "dark element". This thing also has a very trendy name called "antimatter".
There are also some people who think that this is a kind of spell similar to the priest's sacred system, the druid's natural system or the warlock's demon system. They also use the power generated by summoning powerful beings from other worlds far away in time and space, but the object of priests' prayers is the great Supreme God, the druids worship the goddess of nature, and the warlocks sign soul contracts with some messy monsters hidden in some unknown corner. The powerful magic of the undead liches comes from the goddess of death, Teflimirans, who rules the realm of eternal darkness.
This tit-for-tat academic debate has been going on for hundreds of years on the Falvi continent. The funny thing is that none of the great magic scholars involved in the debate would use even the most basic necromancy magic. The reason is simple: this mysterious magic has relatively strict restrictions on the physical condition of the caster - only the corrupt who have been baptized by death can master this rare spell.
Unfortunately, those undead liches obviously do not have the spirit of pursuit of truth like the mainland scholars. More importantly, they do not seem to have the time to write books and engage in verbal battles. In the authoritative historical materials that can be traced, all the famous and unknown undead liches seem to have devoted their entire lives to the extremely hopeless cause of destroying the world. Of course, they all failed without exception.
Judging from the ending, their boredom is actually not much different from their lively and vibrant magic colleagues on the continent of Falvi.
However, no matter how intense the disputes and conflicts in the academic community are, one thing is generally recognized: Undead magic is absolutely a dark, cruel, and tyrannical magic with the purpose of killing.
We have deeply experienced this...
After a terrifying spell, a sharp scream pierced my heart like an awl. This was not a sound I heard with my ears, but it rose from the bottom of my heart and pierced deeply into my consciousness. This invisible magic seemed to penetrate my soul directly, tearing my spirit into pieces bit by bit. In the ravages of this cruel magic, although I could not feel the pain in my body, I was tortured by the pain of my soul and became dazed. The strong shield and heavy armor that I was proud of did not play any defensive role in front of the "Soul Sorrow" magic of the Undead Lich.
After withstanding the first round of attacks, Nocturne in B-flat minor immediately sang a "War Song of Will" to strengthen will, resist mental attack spells, and increase the recovery speed of magic power and fighting spirit, but Vesalius's methods were not limited to this. He raised his four arms at the same time and summoned four spears made of bones out of thin air. There was a yellow-green stench around the spears. These four spears did not fly out as I expected, but surrounded him in front of him and spun into a ball. When I rushed to his side, two of them automatically flew towards me.
Fortunately, I dodged in time, and the bone spear only scratched my left shoulder, cutting off less than 100 points of my health, and the other one stabbed my arm. But soon I found that this active defense magic summon not only has a threatening lethality, but also has a headache-inducing toxic damage, and has a strong corrosive effect, which reduced the defense of my armor by more than 30 points and the durability by 3 points.
"Paladin, pay attention to detoxification, Warlock, release your fighting spirit!" Ding Ding Xiaoge also attracted the attack of two bone spears. The bonus to the dwarf's dodge chance helped him. He was lucky enough to be unharmed. He swung his dagger at the bone spears floating in the air while giving orders loudly.
Under the command of Ding Ding Xiao Ge, the Hell Soul approached him despite the attack magic of the Undead Lich. This monster from the alien continent seemed to have no sense of pain, and it did not slow down after being attacked by two "flesh bombs" head-on. However, Ding Ding Xiao Ge still carefully used "Soul Balance" and gave half of his vitality to the servant.
Once within three steps, A. Vesalius would face a fair and brutal battle of life consumption, which is usually not the strong point of a magic researcher. Although the power of his undead magic is still not to be underestimated, under the "soul balance" magic of the orc warlock, the life of the devil's war soul is always kept at a safe value. And Niu Baiwan and the fairy who came to the earth face down can always replenish Ding Ding Xiaoge's life in time, so that he has more capital to maintain the combat effectiveness of the servants.
When the magic of the protective bone spear finally expired, Nocturne and I immediately joined the siege of the Undead Lich, which accelerated his demise. Although he used "Soul Sorrow" for the second time to cause us a brief chaos and took the opportunity to escape from our siege, Niu Baiwan summoned a "Holy Hammer" in time, knocking him unconscious on the spot and he was surrounded by us again.
Perhaps the previous training has improved our level and strengthened our strength; perhaps as a researcher, A. Vesalius is really not good at fighting, and the identity of the fifty-seventh-level leader is a bit unworthy of the title. In short, this battle was much easier than we thought. Although his huge vitality made us quite a bit of effort, we never encountered any real danger from beginning to end. His attack power is indeed strong, but we can withstand it with the support of Niu Baiwan and Xiannvxia.
By the time Niu Baiwan joined the battle with his big stone pillar, the battle was already coming to an end. Before long, this four-armed rotten creature turned into a pile of broken bones on the ground, completely cutting off the idea of feasting on our fresh specimens.
While cleaning the battlefield, Tintin found a transparent crystal vessel embedded in a copper frame . It was named "Part 1 of the Fusion Device" and marked "For Alchemists Only". Thinking of the complex experiment that A. Vesalius had done when I first arrived at the dungeon, I compared it with the instrument on the stone platform and found that except for the size difference, this should indeed be part of that instrument.
This thing might come in handy - I thought so and threw the incomplete part into my backpack.
