Chapter 23: Exploration (2/2)

An imp’s skull was very different from a human’s, with its widened forehead and enlarged eye sockets, it was more alien than human. As it stood upright, a sinister green flame lit up in its empty eye sockets. It was an undead’s soul fire. This was an important component in controlling their bodies, thus making it a conspicuous weakness.

Once this was extinguished, the undead would experience true death. If the soul’s container was destroyed before the soul was extinguished, it would merely fly away to look for another container.

In a sense, they could revive themselves infinitely; though it was more akin to swapping bodies. Kinda like a Gun*am pilot switching Gun*ams.

“No.3 distract him for a while, I want to test out my magic.”

“Yes, master.” No.3 immediately stood in front me, shielding me with his towering body.

No.3 charged right at the skeleton and let forth a deafening howl that almost scattered its bones as it retreated backwards from the shockwave.

Darkness Arrow.

Its casting time was now shortened to 4 seconds and with the time bought by No.3’s stunning howl, I managed to fire off an arrow at the skeleton.

*Bam*

The skeleton crumbled into a pile of bones as its skull was knocked several meters away by the darkness arrow.

Big 1 immediately rushed to the skull to harvest the soul and reverently presented it to me: “Master, please help yourself.”

The soul flame twisted about as it laid on his palm. With just one look, it was obvious this was different from the souls I’ve eaten before. It’s taste…wasn’t that great. It had a deathly feel to it that reminded me of decaying corpses. However, the nourishment it provided was significantly better than what I was used to. Compared to a small imp’s soul, it provided an additional 50% boost in nourishment.

“What’s the combat strength of such a skeleton?”

“Equivalent to a small imp.” No.3 replied with an expected answer.

“Let’s continue. We will wander around this area for a while, my magic test isn’t over yet.”

“Yes, Master.”

As we wandered around, we encountered several small imp skeletons which were swiftly taken care of by No.3 and the others. Finally after 20 minutes, we met our first large imp skeleton.

Judging from its appearance, it was definitely made up of a large imp’s skeleton. As for its strength, my darkness arrow was no longer able to kill it in one shot. The most it could do was blow off a limb. This was due to the inherent hardness of its skull being stronger than the other bones. In order to destroy its skull, I would require at least three arrows.

Judging by my arrow’s consumption, my mana pool could definitely sustain ten consecutive shots. As for nether flames…unfortunately, I couldn’t use it.

I had a feeling that this flame required emotions as a medium in order to materialize. An example would be anger. Hmm, what other techniques did I have…oh, there’s still the flame whip.

I clapped my hands together, and as I did so, a bundle of flames wrapped around my right arm. Seeing this, I separated my hands. Simultaneously, a stream of flames formed in between my hands and took the shape of a whip.

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The whip was around five meters in length and gave off a scorching feeling as I waved it around. Mhm, not a bad skill.

But a whip…aren’t those usually used by women…

Forget it, only a ⑨.idiot would care about minor details like these. (TL: Some Chinese joke about someone who can only count up to 9.)

This new map was pretty cold especially for me. Being a picky eater that didn’t want to eat meat, my physical body was weaker than most large imps. In this regard, the flame whip had another unexpected benefit. Due to its heat, it functioned as a heat source. As long as I kept it out, even if it wasn’t in the midst of a battle, I could keep myself warm.

In front of me was an ancient battlefield scattered with the bones of its participants; along with some weapons. Furthermore, the winds blowing from that area seemed to be much colder than the winds from the other areas.

At first I thought it was merely my imagination, but quickly changed my mind once Big 1 reported that he felt this strangeness too. As I was planning to leave this eerie place, the sounds of bones clattering around echoed in the previously silent battlefield. During the next 10 seconds, undead could be seen rising one by one throughout the battlefield. Some of them were devils in life while some were human. Human?

I was familiar with human skeletons from surfing the net in my previous life. Based on those images, these skeletons fit a human’s perfectly. Adding to the credibility of this theory was the fact that they wore armor such as leather vests or plate mails. They also carried weapons commonly used by humans; such as shields, swords, hatchets and spears.

There were quite of skeletons about. I roughly estimated their numbers to be over a hundred, with over 60 of them wearing equipment. I fired my arrow at one of the helmet wearing skeletons. Based on this test, the effects were pretty good. The arrows shattered the helmet along with the skull underneath and instantly extinguished the soul flame within.

From this result, these armored skeletons were at the level of a small imp. With their weapons added into the mix, they were slightly stronger than your average small imp.

“Destroy them.” I gave this order without batting an eyebrow. Having tested my arrow, I had no further use for these undead.

The 30 large imps on our side were more than a match for these skeletons. With their bone clubs and them being a full tier ahead of the skeletons, the battle was swiftly concluded within a minute.

After the battle, No.3 stood by my side as a bodyguard; as Big 1 harvested the souls.

However, before the souls were done being harvested, the ground quaked, and a withered hand shot out of the ground; vigorously trying to pull itself out. A short while later, a shriveled corpse broke through the dried ground in a flurry of soil and dust. A zombie! While its form was slightly different, I was still able to recognize what it was. This uninvited guest was a large imp zombie!

Like the first signs of spring after winter, zombie after zombie could be seen digging their way out of the ground around the battlefield. Some of these were devil zombies while some were armored human zombies. The devil zombies all had a towering stature which exuded an aura of immense strength. As for the human zombies, they surprised me more as they seemed to know how to use their weapons.

There were about 50 of these zombies in total. While their actions were sluggish, they weren’t the slow zombies you saw in movies; they were faster than your average civilian!