Chapter 485
Chapter 485: The Undead Do Not Die, They Only Wither
“Damn, that dog Hog actually dares to set his sights on us! He really needs a beating.”
In reality, at night in the school’s food court barbecue restaurant’s private room, Cheche, slightly tipsy after a few drinks, took big bites of fragrant grilled kidney while saying to the large table of people beside him:
“Once I respawn, I’ll get online and beat him up.”
“You should first think about how to break through Hog’s ‘Chieftain Guard’. Just those four Netherworld Knights protecting him are not something you can handle.
Not to mention those barbarian soldiers that Hog has armed.
Plus, Hog himself is an excellent Gnoll assassin, he’s a disciple personally trained by Lady Dorothy.”
Leading Pigeon snorted while holding his wine glass.
He looked at the others in the private room, coughed once, and said:
“Well, I called everyone here tonight to discuss the news Niuniu brought, whether Hog’s suggestion is feasible or not?
We’re all brothers in the same guild, and we’ve all participated in the Plague Town raid, so naturally everyone has a say in this matter.
So don’t hold back, just speak up if you have any thoughts.”
“What thoughts could we have?”
The four athletes who were called to come eat barbecue had already entered “feast mode”. Shrimp Catcher, who was hungry after training earlier in the day, kept scooping grilled scallops into his mouth while mumbling:
“It’s your conquered town, so you guys decide. But Hog said his idea was advised by Old Chen, so I think this plan definitely has no problems.
Even if you don’t trust Alpha Company’s AI, you should have confidence in the old professor’s professional standards.”
“Exactly exactly.”
Scholar Xiao Zhou was taking apart a grilled chicken leg while squinting and saying:
“I just suggested to Niuniu about finding someone to jointly govern, and then Hog shows up offering this. I seriously suspect if Alpha Company is monitoring our in-game voice chat, otherwise how could this be such a coincidence?
However thinking carefully, if this really is arranged by the development team it’s understandable.
After all, the reasons Hog gave aren’t made up.
Although us four haven’t participated in the swamp war, the complaints about the swamp environment on the forum haven’t stopped this past month.
They’ve always believed the development team didn’t need to put so much effort into making the swamp terrain 100% realistic, which shows most people actually don’t like staying in the dark swamp for long periods.
It’s really a huge challenge to mental health.
From this perspective, entrusting the town to Hog isn’t a big deal, anyway he’ll give us revenue, and it saves us from having to recruit new people from the management system.
Those Gnolls are like fish in water when operating in the swamp, it’s their naturally preferred environment.”
“Who says so?”
The art student Three Jin Sweet Potato Wine tossed his flowing bangs while gnawing on ribs, shaking his head and saying:
“I see Old Qin having so much fun in the swamp.
Today he dressed up like Rambo and started teaching us experience in setting up ambushes in the swamp, who knows where that guy learned it from?”
“Oh, Old Qin, he’s really something else.”
Players who participated in the swamp battle had all heard of “Old Qin” heroic deeds.
They unanimously believed Old Qin must have had a glorious war experience when he was young. Seeing that the conversation in the private room had already deviated after a few minutes to start guessing Old Qin’s real identity, Ah Yuen helplessly threw away his chicken bones and knocked on the table saying:
“Hey folks let’s be serious, this outpost’s future development involves the guild’s future!”
“No matter what you say, this is just a game!”
Three Jin Sweet Potato Wine pouted and said:
“So don’t be so serious, since the development team spawned Hog’s optional quest line, just do it, what? You’re planning to reject this hidden quest that’s delivered to your doorstep?
Damn!
Are you even a qualified player?”
“Shit, what you said makes so much sense, I can’t refute! Just from the perspective of accepting quests, this indeed isn’t an issue that needs discussion.”
Ah Yuen was stunned.
He blinked and sighed, raising his wine glass saying:
“But although we can entrust it to Hog the revenue part still needs to be haggled over, 60% is just too ridiculous, this is his swamp planning!
If he wants us to cooperate with him shouldn’t he be paying us money? Why should we give him a portion of our revenue?
Our revenue should be all ours, that old fellow Hog should provide us with a monthly rental fee!
Hehe, now this proportion is worth discussing.”
“Damn, you want to exploit money that Gnolls work hard to dig out from the swamp, you really are a vampire! Come come, Lord Vampire, let me toast you.
Are you farming fish here?
Drink up!
Another!”
“Ah, I’m not good with alcohol today, how about…”
“Hey! Putting on airs, brothers, make him drink!”
“Ahhh, Brother Niu don’t! I haven’t told others about you accepting bribes from Hog to get weapons for your waifu!
How could you repay kindness with enmity!”
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Over the next two days, the ruins cleanup work in Plague Town was quickly shouldered by the Blood Claw Clan’s Kobolds.
Hog sent Nash as supervisor, letting the recently defected Kobolds enter the swamp en masse. By the second day’s afternoon they had cleaned up the observation posts around Plague Town that were destroyed in the war.
However large-scale work cannot begin in the town yet, because that swamp giant snake is still lying there.
The purification ritual that Avalon Church’s priests are performing on it hasn’t finished yet. The Kobolds are afraid of the legendary creature’s aura and refuse to go near no matter what, giving supervisor Nash a headache.
Despite holding a whip, he’s actually scared too…
Fortunately Chief Hog didn’t set a construction timeline, and the student players aren’t in a hurry either, so this matter can be taken slowly.
Although the ruins cleanup of Plague Town temporarily cannot progress quickly, the removal of various “dangerous items” in the town is already moving full steam ahead.
The Plague Tower has already collapsed so there’s no need to worry, but there are really too many evil items remaining in the Construction Tower.
Especially the Gnoll necromancers who piled up large amounts of corpse remains inside as materials. Although these things won’t affect personal safety, they will undoubtedly impact players’ mental state.
Therefore this task cannot be given to players to handle, and can only be processed by Avalon Church’s witch hunters.
Their handling method is also very simple and crude.
These witch hunters who survived the Ten-Year War have already become cold as iron. They move those corpse remains collected from the swamp out, dig a pit and pile them together, then chant Avalon’s divine name and call upon purifying fire to burn them clean.
Very natural, very pollution-free, and very effective.
After the Blood Claw Clan’s Kobolds arrived, the work of cleaning up various filthy items remaining in the Construction Tower was also given to the Kobolds to do.
Under the witch hunters’ command they moved those things out of the tower, and during this process, the Kobolds who are skilled at digging holes and exploring mines unexpectedly discovered a “secret chamber” hidden in the Construction Tower.
It was a chamber sealed by spirit energy formations, just looking at the external structure you could tell whatever was sealed inside was definitely extraordinary.
The Kobolds reported this news to the witch hunters. After the witch hunters sent people to check they found that sealing formation on the door was quite advanced, they couldn’t really handle it.
So this matter went through another transfer and was sent to the Young Lady currently stationed at Wolf Fort.
Femis quickly arrived at the Construction Tower after receiving the news. She spent some time dismantling that sealing formation, and only then entered that door leading underground under the escort of several witch hunters.
The Young Lady originally thought this matter would be dangerous, but in fact besides that sealing formation, there weren’t many more dangers in the underground chamber.
However the things stored here surprised everyone, to the extent that the witch hunters actively sealed off this place without needing the Young Lady’s orders, waiting for further handling.
Thirty minutes later, with Tris personally casting teleportation magic, Murphy who had just left here returned once again to the Plague Town ruins.
He entered that secret chamber, and then saw the Young Lady mumbling incantations, collecting strange objects from inside one by one and bringing them out.
The reason they’re called strange is because these items don’t have a unified style.
Among the things that Femis sorted and piled outside were broken knight swords, rotting war helmets, tattered magic tomes, lusterless staves, and even several weathered military shrouds and a broken lady’s mirror.
To ordinary people these things would just be a pile of worthless garbage.
But seeing how carefully the Young Lady took them out of the secret chamber and sorted them, you’d know these things definitely aren’t as simple as they appear on the surface.
“There are so many soul caskets of high-level undead!”
Tris bent down to pick up a broken mirror in elven style. She held it in her hand to examine it and said:
“The craftsmanship isn’t high quality. In the Moon Priests’ view, everything here is inferior goods one and all, but you can’t deny these broken items indeed possess all the functions of soul caskets, yet haven’t undergone any further protective treatment.
A standard qualified soul casket should at least possess sufficient durability to not easily break under external force impacts.
I guess these are items selected by the plague mages from the personal belongings found on the corpses when resurrecting those corpse mages and Netherworld Knights.
These Gnolls are quite sentimental, and very pragmatic.”
The Blood Vulture Grand Duchess complained while handing the elven mirror and a blackened elven staff at her feet together to Murphy, saying:
“These are Bernice and Bella’s soul caskets, take them back to give to Adele. Just holding them I can hear that ill-fated couple’s cut-off soul fragments screaming inside, cursing the world’s malice.”
“Mm.”
Murphy took the two items and looked at the various soul caskets laid out on the ground again, asking Femis who was busy:
“How many soul caskets are hidden in here?”
“So far, 75, but there are still hidden compartments inside, so the exact number is unknown, but definitely no less than 100.”
This is also the Young Lady’s first time handling soul caskets.
She’s very interested in these rare undead creations. While recording in her spirit energy notebook, she enthusiastically answered:
“This is more than the forty corpse mages and Netherworld Knights that Mr. Bella described to us, obviously because the Gnolls resurrected another batch of elite dead from the foul swamp to fight against the swamp giant snake.
These fellows are really damnable!
Such large-scale playing with this kind of disturbing evil magic would be shocking in other parts of the continent.
I also found some incompletely crafted soul caskets down there, but each one already has soul and consciousness fragments bound to it.
Just completing the final step of soul casket crafting would permanently bind another batch of undead to the world of the living.
I think we should release them.”
“It’s not as simple as you think, Femis. This isn’t as simple as casually doing a good deed. If breaking undead bindings were so easy, the Moon Priests couldn’t possibly have guarded their holy city for a thousand years.”
Tris immediately rejected:
“There are many approaches to crafting soul caskets. Even in the Moon Holy City there are several faction divisions regarding these death techniques. Different crafting approaches will bring different soul casket effects.
When you can’t confirm which school the Gnolls adopted, rashly breaking the soul caskets won’t let these bound souls rest in peace, it will only let them experience the fear and pain of soul scattering for an instant, then transform into harder to deal with wandering ghosts coming to fight you to the death.
That’s not salvation!
That’s just inflicting final torture on them. Such rash behavior is no different from the evil of taking life in the Moon Priests’ eyes.
So, we must first properly protect these soul caskets.
Make decisions after I slowly analyze and research the crafting techniques used on them. This may take a lot of time, but if you want to let them rest in peace, they must first persevere in the world of the living.
But with these soul caskets, it’s enough to make those corpse mages and Netherworld Knights who fled into the swamp during the chaos in Plague Town return here.”
Tris looked at Murphy, and the vampire lord nodded.
So Tris immediately began casting death school secret magic, with wisps of grayish-white smoke rising from the soul caskets laid out before them like command signals.
Soon, within twenty minutes there was movement in the swamp.
Amidst the terrified hisses of Kobolds still working overtime digging holes in the warm little light spheres of lit candles filled with happiness, the first batch of commanded-to-return Netherworld Knights appeared silently outside Plague Town riding their gloomy warhorses.
This scene was also discovered by the little players.
They quickly organized to gather around and watch these “returning home” undead while shouting and hollering.
The Netherworld Knights and corpse mages paid no attention to the noise of the surrounding players and Kobolds. They stepped onto the broken ruins in a manner completely befitting the undead’s deathly stillness, and in their unguided advance finally stopped outside the Construction Tower.
Murphy didn’t appear immediately.
He was still inside the Construction Tower with Tris and the Young Lady organizing the soul caskets. It wasn’t until nearly two hours later, after most of the undead who fled during the chaos had returned here, that Murphy appeared before them carrying a bag of soul caskets.
The vampire lord looked at these dozens of undead who still had complete bodies, their consciousness not yet returned to slumber in the soul caskets. He didn’t make long speeches with them, but raised the bag of soul caskets in his hand.
This action immediately made the present undead raise their heads, those pairs of ghostly blue bone-fires staring at Murphy, conveying quite complex meanings.
“Bella and Bernice now serve me, they are already members of Crimson Citadel.”
Murphy didn’t waste words with these undead, getting straight to the point:
“I know you all know this half-elf couple. What I want to tell you is that I’m very willing to let you all rest in peace!
I know you were all heroes and ancestors who fought against the Gnolls in the swamp during several Black Plagues, but my Spirit Sovereign must first identify the death techniques used on your soul caskets before she can help you safely remove the bindings.
This means you need to persevere for a while longer.”
This speech received no response.
Although the undead remained silent, that unique aura emanating from them gathered together, easily making surrounding onlookers realize they were very disappointed with Murphy’s choice.
Perhaps the undead believed Murphy was no different from the Gnoll mages, speaking of temporary service but actually just using release and peace as bait to induce them to continue serving.
However, the next second, Murphy unhesitatingly tossed over the bag in his hand.
The bag hit the ground and loosened, scattering the various soul caskets inside all over the ground.
“Before finding a way to let you rest in peace, your soul caskets are better carried by yourselves.”
The Governor declared loudly:
“Those whose forms were destroyed and cannot yet be resurrected will be restored under the direction of my ‘revenant’ Bella, and I will likewise return their soul caskets to them.
What I want to tell you is that I have absolutely no need for you disturbed-from-rest undead to serve me. I already have the bravest warriors in this world as my vanguard.
You are just a group of pitiful people who shouldn’t appear in this era.
I won’t continue to exploit you.
But you cannot continue staying on Wolf Fort’s lands. You’ve disturbed the order of this swamp too much. Before you obtain rest, you can go to Crimson Citadel’s underground corridors.
There is enough space there for you.
Of course, if you don’t believe the promises of a vampire, you’re free to leave on your own.
But I hope you understand, the torment you’ve experienced during this time is just the most insignificant part of a massive evil organization.
Leaving Transia means you’ll re-enter a state of playing ‘hide and seek’ with those people, this is a very dangerous decision!
You have one night to make your choice.”
After finishing, Murphy flapped his wings and floated up into the air.
He didn’t intend to say too much to these undead. His interactions with Bella and Bernice had taught him that disturbed-from-rest undead are all very stubborn, absolutely impossible to convince with words.
After Murphy left, several among the undead immediately picked up their soul caskets, then left these ruins without looking back.
They quickly disappeared into the shadows of the swamp.
That represented their belief that they didn’t need help, they believed they could still handle all troubles they encountered on their own, just like when they were alive.
But most of the corpse mages and Netherworld Knights chose to stay.
This doesn’t mean they chose to serve Murphy and his cause.
They simply had nowhere else to go.
As wanderers in the mortal realm, they are accepted by neither the living nor the dead, only able to walk painfully in the cracks between the two worlds, until beautiful rest arrives one day or perhaps it never will.
This is the destiny of the undead.
They are the cursed ones, the forgotten ones, the exploited ones, the trampled ones.
From the moment of resurrection, no glory remains for them in this world, only endless humiliation and waiting awaits them, and this is the price of breaking the balance between life and death.
The undead do not die, they only wither.