Chapter 218: Undead

Damn!

Whose foot was so annoying, Su Lun cursed in his heart, then immediately activated his energy. A large amount of Lightning Glow appeared from his body, and the Purple Dragon Halberd instantly appeared in his hand.

The Twisted Shadows that were attracted quickly sensed the abundant life force here. As Undead, they hated all living things but desperately craved to have flesh, blood, and life again.

The Twisted Shadows moved very fast. Su Lun swung the Purple Dragon Halberd, but the Twisted Shadow vanished from its original spot and reappeared at Su Lun’s side. The surrounding Negative Energy suddenly increased, and a dark red light radiated from the Twisted Shadow.

[Death Touch]

The light instantly swept across Su Lun’s body, a Spell-like Ability innate to high-level Undead.

Suddenly, a series of alerts popped up on the status panel:

“Under attack. Host was hit by the spell [Death Touch].”

“Forced saving throw triggered!”

“Fortitude saving throw successful. Constitution saving throw successful. You are immune to the paralysis effect attached to this spell attack! Your energy decreased…”

The sudden appearance of the Twisted Shadow caught Su Lun off guard, but his strong reflexes allowed him to launch an attack immediately. The Lightning Glow surged, and the Purple Dragon Halberd, carrying a mass of lightning, instantly struck the Twisted Shadow. This distorted Undead, which seemed to lurk in the shadows, had no time to dodge and was swept through by the Purple Dragon Halberd.

Intense lightning energy instantly enveloped it. Su Lun gave it no chance to escape; the Purple Dragon Halberd drew an arc and struck again.

Pop

Like a bursting bubble, the Twisted Shadow could not withstand the powerful lightning force and was directly obliterated by the lightning. The shadow melted away like ice and snow, instantly turning into scattered ashes.

Clink!

A soft sound rang out as a gray crystal dropped where the Twisted Shadow had died—exactly a Soul Crystal.

Soul Crystals were only dropped by a few ghost-type monsters and Abyssal Demons, or very rarely when a powerhouse of Legendary Level or above died. These items had many uses for Wizards. The most common use was for Golem Puppets.

Seeing the dropped Soul Crystal, Su Lun’s eyes lit up. It seemed this time there were quite a few extra gains. Seeing the dozens of Twisted Shadows behind, Su Lun flashed forward and charged at them. Just then, a series of chaotic footsteps sounded from the nearby Gem Mine.

Soon after, a group of skeletons with dark, shiny bones, standing as tall as 2.2 meters, rushed out. These skeletons didn’t appear as fragile as those low-level Undead skeletons. All of them were robust and even had a metallic sheen. Wielding bone blades and bone spears, they charged at the Gray Dwarves and Drow Elves as soon as they appeared.

“Skeleton Warriors!”

A mid-level Undead creature that evolved after several advancements from a low-level skeleton. If they advanced further, they would become Skeleton Generals or Bone Demons. Of course, such levels of Undead rarely appeared in the Material World. Only in the legendary realm of the dead would such quasi-Legendary high-level Undead creatures exist.

Seeing the charging Skeleton Warriors, the Gray Dwarves roared in anger. Their short legs moved like spinning wheels as they raised their axe-hammers and rushed forward. Though they couldn’t handle Twisted Shadows well, dealing with these bone frames was quite easy.

The 2.2-meter-tall Skeleton Warriors were almost half a body taller than the 1.5-meter-tall Gray Dwarves, but sometimes height wasn’t an advantage.

“I hate things taller than me, especially you rotten bones!” A Gray Dwarf crouched down, dodging the Skeleton Warrior’s bone blade, then swung his axe-hammer in a sweeping motion at the Skeleton Warrior’s knee.

Even as a skeleton, the knee remained a weak spot. The Gray Dwarves’ axe-hammers were heavy and powerful, instantly shattering the Skeleton Warrior’s knee.

The 2.2-meter-tall bone frame suddenly lost balance and fell sideways. The Gray Dwarves spun around, moved to the other side of the Skeleton Warrior, and with a swift motion, swung the axe-hammer, severing the Skeleton Warrior’s neck.

“Now you’re not taller than me!” The Gray Dwarf laughed heartily, then smashed the Skeleton Warrior’s skull with another blow. The pale soul-fire within the cranium went out.

“Thunder Lightning Spear!”

A dazzling flash of lightning erupted from Su Lun’s body, immediately enveloping him entirely. Surrounded by crackling electricity, his strong muscles and leaping lightning made him look like a thunder god descended from the myths of the Ancient Gods!

The surrounding Twisted Shadows also sensed the danger and seemed to hesitate, wanting to flee.

Swish, swish, swish

The Purple Dragon Halberd transformed into a blur of afterimages, sweeping through the surrounding Twisted Shadows. Su Lun leaped forward, crossing over ten meters in an instant, while countless spear shadows accompanied by numerous lightning strikes hit the Twisted Shadows simultaneously.

Like a hot knife cutting through butter, the Purple Dragon Halberd swept through the bodies of the Twisted Shadows. Powerful lightning energy instantly wrapped around them. Just then, the other Twisted Shadows began to attack as well.

Shadows rushed in from all directions. Su Lun’s Purple Dragon Halberd drew blurred trails, and lightning filled the air. Many Shadow Tentacles were submerged in the lightning, but some persisted.

A series of notifications sounded in Su Lun’s ears:

“You were attacked by Twisted Shadows. You suffered a Death Touch attack. You suffered Death Erosion damage. Your Constitution passed the saving throw. You possess Legendary Toughness. Immune to this Death Erosion effect…”

—Chaotic Dance!

As Su Lun was under attack, the Purple Dragon Halberd in his hand instantly transformed into several silver dragons wreathed in lightning, counter-attacking in the direction of the assaults. The lightning was blinding, and the surrounding Twisted Shadows were struck instantly.

As ghost-type Undead creatures, Twisted Shadows were immune to fifty percent of physical damage, but their own health points weren’t high. After being hit by several lightning strikes in succession, many Twisted Shadows were killed by the lightning.

—Silver Dragon’s Reverse Scale Spear!

Countless bolts of lightning condensed into a dragon-shaped silhouette around Su Lun. As soon as this lightning-formed dragon appeared, it carried an aura of destruction as it charged at the surrounding Twisted Shadows. The enormous dragon silhouette swept through, and wherever it passed, all the Twisted Shadows’ bodies stiffened instantly. Numerous lightning bolts erupted from within them.

Ding dong, ding dong sounds rang continuously as many Soul Crystals fell from mid-air.

The dragon silhouette dissipated, and more than half of the several dozen Twisted Shadows around disappeared instantly, leaving only a few unaffected ones. The rest of the battle became much simpler, and the remaining Twisted Shadows were easily taken care of by Su Lun.

At the same time, the battle between the Dwarves and Drow Elves was nearing its end. Though the Skeleton Warriors were quite strong, they had no advantage against the Dwarves and Drow Elves. With their three-step tactic of cutting legs, breaking necks, and smashing skulls, they were quickly wiped out. The ground was left littered with broken bones.

The battle ended quickly. Su Lun assigned people to collect the spoils. This time, the number of spoils was quite large—all Soul Crystals. This was a specialty of Undead monsters. Undead creatures were notoriously poor; aside from Soul Crystals, they basically had nothing else.

After the battle, Su Lun gained around ten thousand Experience Points but nothing else. Looking at the nearby Gem Mine, Su Lun decided to check if there were any stragglers inside. He called over two Gray Dwarves familiar with the tunnels, and the three of them entered the mine together.

The Gem Mine was different from what Su Lun had imagined—it wasn’t filled with gems everywhere, but rather rocks. Occasionally, colorful quartz could be seen in the mine, and there were many signs of excavation around.

“Something’s wrong!” one of the Gray Dwarves suddenly said.

“What’s wrong?” Su Lun’s body tensed instantly, and he slightly raised the sharp sword in his hand.

“These marks are fresh, left recently,” the Gray Dwarf said, pointing to a digging mark on the tunnel wall.

“Recently? Not dug by you Gray Dwarves?” Su Lun’s expression changed.

“No, our Dwarf mining isn’t this sloppy,” the Gray Dwarf said with a proud look.

“It seems that during the time you were away, other guests have taken over this place!” Su Lun raised an eyebrow.

“Let’s go deeper. I want to see who dares to touch my cheese!”

Because they had discovered the digging marks, the three of them proceeded with more caution. However, all the monsters in the mine had been killed earlier, and they didn’t encounter anything else along the way.

As they went deeper, there were more and more newly dug marks in the mine. Su Lun and the other two followed the traces further in. After a few minutes, the group stopped in front of a tunnel where a Stone Wall blocked the way.

“Why is there a Stone Wall here? I remember there was a rest hall behind it,” one Gray Dwarf said.

“It seems we’ve found the little rat that’s been stealing our ore!” Su Lun’s face broke into a warm smile, but his tone was like the biting cold wind of the far northern ice fields, instantly freezing a person into an ice sculpture.

“Step aside.” Su Lun went to the side of the wall and pressed his hand against the tunnel’s side. The originally hard rock quickly softened, turning into mud. Soon, a man-sized hole appeared in the side wall. To avoid alerting the enemy, Su Lun didn’t open a hole directly in the Stone Wall blocking the tunnel but went through the trouble of creating a passage through the side wall.

Under Su Lun’s spell, the hard rock softened rapidly. In just a few minutes, a passage was opened. Su Lun felt the space open up ahead and found himself in the hall behind the Stone Wall. The scene before him was both surprising and very familiar.

Someone had actually set up a Laboratory here. Unlike Heatherway’s Laboratory, this one had many glass containers filled with various liquids. Organs or entrails from unknown creatures were soaking inside.

Around the Laboratory, there were piles of skeletons that closely resembled those of the Skeleton Warriors outside. This Gem Mine had actually been taken over by a Necromancer.