Chapter 37: Abandoned Village

During ancient times, the lands were rife with conflict and war. Back then, humanity was much weaker. Humanity was sandwiched between all the major races of the world, putting them in a dire situation where even survival wasn’t guaranteed. Chief among the culprits responsible for humanity’s dire situation were the devils and the undead. They were relentless in their pursuit of humans, seemingly bent on wiping them out.

According to the history books, the Sea of Sadness used to be a fertile plot of land where the strongest human kingdom once stood. Under the leadership of their king, the military withstood countless devil invasions, until one day, they angered the demon god.

In one night, the country was wiped out and all that remained was a bottomless abyss…As time passed, the fields were replaced by a sea of water. And so, the kingdom became the Sea of Sadness.

——–From <>

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Oh, so that’s why…

That issue of my two refinements having different costs has been solved. It didn’t take too long nor was it some complicated reason…it was simply because of that Grimoire of the Dead!

The grimoire had an enhancement effect on any magic that I casted as long as I hugged it. The grimoire also reduced the mana cost of any spells I casted, undead or otherwise.

Furthermore, undead spells received a boost in strength while I held it. For example, summoning a skeleton with the grimoire in hand created a skeleton that was stronger than most of the wild skeletons we encountered. Any bone wall created was sturdier as well.

What’s even more unexpected, was that this unfilial b*****d of a book was even fighting with me over souls! Are you trying to rebel? How dare you steal my food away from me, your master!

I can’t throw away this rebellious book either. I would lose a trump card if I did that. Not to mention I still relied on it for magical knowledge. Plus, those benefits I just mentioned more than made up for this defect. At least, this was the conclusion I came up with after calming down. This defect wasn’t that bad…

Besides, isn’t the fact that the grimoire was able to absorb souls, miraculous in of itself? That’s right, I should have the attitude of [I wonder what this book’s final form will be like?].

The thought that it could one day try to attack me, had occurred to me; so I decided to perform the textbook master-servant ceremony on it. I dripped a drop of my blood onto the grimoire…..and three seconds later, nothing happened…except for the blood getting absorbed.

Is it because there’s not enough blood? I decided to drip more blood…just to be safe. The result a few seconds later was, a whole load of nothing…

F*ck, I was almost angry enough to toss the grimoire away.

Damn you, if you can’t recognize a master, can’t you at least give me a heads up?! Did you really have to make me lose all that blood before you were satisfied!?

Ever since that day, I would constantly hug the grimoire; whether it was while eating or even sleeping. From time to time I would flip open the book, but not to read…just to casually flip through the pages. Heh, I bet it’s pissed at me right now. Well too bad, this brother is petty that way.

As for my Mo sabers, after conducting a weapons test on the refined versions, I had an idea. Due to its piercing capabilities, it could serve just as well as a long spear. The saber wielders could hide behind the heavy shields as usual, and merely had to treat the Mo sabers as long spears due to the space constraints.

(Weapons made from dark alchemy had a mold imprinted into the spell beforehand. The materials and mana would then be employed to create a weapon fitting this mold. As such creating a long spear takes up the same amount of resources as making a Mo saber. In that case, the Mo sabers were naturally a better choice due to their versatility. This is why Mo Ke decided to stick with the Mo sabers.)

With the Alteration spell, I could now repair and modify my old creations, thus saving me a lot of mana. With that in mind, I prioritised modifying my old creations over creating new refined weapons.

The zombie team created by that robed skeleton had left a deep impression on me. The sight of them wildly swinging their giant hammers and ruining my heavy shields had changed my views about hammers.

In the past, I didn’t favor unwieldy weapons like hammers due to their lack in speed. However, that encounter made me realize the sheer destructive power of such heavy weaponry. Not to mention, the hammer was especially suited to killing the slow and mindless undead.

With that in mind, I would use any spare mana I had to create some long hammers. These were then given out to the stronger large imps under my command.

As for why I didn’t try to summon a bunch of undead little brothers… Firstly, lower ranked undead were mindless, and this made them difficult to command. Secondly, without a large mass of them, they were useless. Summoning so many was also not feasible due to my lack of mana.

In the end, I settled on my ready-made devil subordinates. After all, they were usable even without weapons. What’s the point of sacrificing the now for the distant future.

Creating these refined weapons took up roughly two times the amount of mana and provided nearly triple the boost in power. Plus, with the grimoire aiding me, the mana cost was also reduced by one third. As such, it only took about 50% more mana for me to create refined weapons, but the resulting gains were over 100%.

The weapons test for the new broadswords yielded amazing results. I tested the broadsword against a sword wielding one-star skeleton, and with one slash, I sliced through his sword. With another, I took his head. The sensation was similar to cutting paper; by the time I noticed the resistance, its head was already sent flying…

I stepped forward and scooped up the skeletal head, holding it up before me. The green soul flames began to stream out of the skull’s eye sockets. Just as it was about to enter my mouth, the soul flames were immediately sucked away in a different direction, like a fish getting reeled in. With a silent whoosh, it disappeared literally under my nose with nothing but a tiny trace of green left behind…

Ahhhhh—-You god damn broken piece of c**p book, every single time! I raised the grimoire high above my head, thoughts of slamming it down and stomping on it floated through my mind…in the end, I couldn’t bear to do so.

After a few days of walking, we stumbled upon an abandoned village…or what was left of one.

This was the third sign of civilization we encountered during this month of wandering in the undead lands. The first was that tower where I attained this damned grimoire; the second was the altar where I met that robed skeleton; and the third was this village.

The layout of the village was similar to a human village. The houses were tightly packed together, but had a fixed distance between each of them. Most of the houses had an empty space in front of them and were all collapsed. Those that weren’t, were full of holes and functioned like a flute whenever the wind blew through them.

Regarding these structures, I had a conflicted view of them. On one hand, they were most likely fraught with danger, and on the other, I didn’t want to miss out on any opportunities.

Who knows what I might find in here. Perhaps enemies? A fortuitous encounter? Either way, I mustn’t let it go. I must search through this place. Whatever secrets it held, they must be revealed to me.

In a split second, the decision to explore the village was made.

It was a large village. Judging from the size, it probably held close to a thousand people. Strange, how did such a place end up in the land of the undead? Logically speaking, there’s no way I could enter the human territories from the blood sea. But this world was littered with traces of human civilization.

For example, those skeletons and zombies that looked like human soldiers. Furthermore, that tower had vengeful ghosts dressed in maid costumes. That robed skeleton was likely a human in life as well. With this village added into the mix…there’s so many questions in my head right now.

The scouring proceeded at a rapid pace. For this trip, I split our team into several groups, with one being led by me. As we scoured, I came upon a noteworthy structure; it was a chapel-like structure. It had its signature large door, but half of it had collapsed, while the other half was still futilely fulfilling its duty. What was left of the door was tightly shut, but it didn’t obstruct our field of vision much.

Within the confines of the chapel, over 10 head imps held a mini feast in front of the chapel podium. Blood and flesh were splattered around the ruined chapel floor as their teeth tore through what could only be another devil. Barbaric…

The chapel reminded me of the more austere Protestant chapels from Earth. There were hardly any decorations, and the entire chapel consisted of a simple walkway flanked by the usual pews; or what was left of them. The floor was littered with the various remains of the pews, with barely any section of it left clean.

Our arrival was quickly noticed by the head imps. Having been interrupted in the middle of their feasting, they were naturally unhappy. However, as they gazed at us, their bodies froze; the shock apparent on their faces; the meat in their mouths falling to the ground. They stared at me with eyes full of undisguised passion, their disgusting drool dribbled down the sides of their mouths as they did so…

Not this again! This brother isn’t a girl, EMPHASIS on BROTHER! Are you guys Pigsy or something?! (TL: Zhu Bajie from Journey to the West)

The first to approach us was the strongest out of the ten. From the looks of it, this imp was on the verge of breaking through to three-star. The other imps immediately followed him, not wanting to be left behind.

While that leading imp had a chipped horn on the left of his forehead, it did not decrease the aura of strength he exuded. Based on this aura, he was at least twice as strong as the others. It was common knowledge among humans that losing their horns made a devil weaker. However, this head imp seemed to defy that consensus. He seemed to be even stronger because of his horn being chipped!

“You, belong to me, rest, doesn’t matter.” The head imp with the chipped horn pointed coarsely at me, before making a sweeping gesture that covered the other devils under my command.

“How dare you insult our Master!” No.3 and Big 4 immediately stepped up to shield me from them. Both of them were the two largest imps, they were nearly half a head taller than the rest. But they were still shorter than the head imps in front of us by at least a head.

“Master?” He took in that word for a moment before saying: “Isn’t she your plaything?”

“…” In what way do I look like a plaything!

“Die!” No.3, ever the loyal subordinate, immediately charged at them upon seeing me being insulted. He swiftly slashed out with his refined black broadsword; with the momentum of his dash aiding him. His opponent smirked disdainfully and met No.3’s sword with his fist. The instant his fist, which was the size of a casserole, met with the black sword, the razor sharp edge of the blade mercilessly sliced through his hide, leaving a gaping wound on his arm.

However, No.3 didn’t get out unscathed either, his opponent managed to counterattack with a kick to his abdomen, sending him crashing into several broken pews.

“Charge!”

I immediately ordered my subordinates. The battle had already begun and there was no more room for hesitation.

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Due to the vastness of the village my men were separated, and right now I only had a portion of my imps with me. These included Big 1, Nine-finger, One-eye, No.3, Big 4, the unnamed female devil and my 20 personal guardsmen. Each of them wielded my refined weapons as they faced off against the imps that were a whole tier higher than them.

In a head on fight, they might not be able to win against the higher tiered imps, but this didn’t matter. They only had to stall for time. Given the ruckus of our battle, the remaining hundreds of imps in my army would swiftly come to our aid.

Big 4 was unable to look after the fallen No.3, and neither was he able to meddle in the battle. As my bodyguard his only duty was to guard me, so he hadn’t taken a single step away from me since No.3 started fighting.

17 head imps versus the 23 armed imps on my side.

While they had my refined weapons aiding them, the disparity in strength was still there. The battle started off with our side being in a disadvantaged position.

Our imps were inferior in terms of power and strength. Black swords would’ve helped remedy this problem, but we didn’t have enough soul pearls to go around. So not all of the guardsmen were equipped with the enchanted black sword that prevented wounds from closing.

Furthermore, while the head imps looked clumsy and slow, in actuality, they were much faster than the large imps. In a one on one fight, they could easily dodge the weapons of the guardsmen while waiting for an opportunity to strike. Even with the refined bone shields aiding them, the guardsmen still had difficulty retaliating.

Considering that we were facing devils, fire attacks like the flame whip wouldn’t work. Looks like the only choice left was the darkness arrow. But the arrows were simply too weak…

As an arrow streaked across the space, crashing into the head of the chipped-horn imp, it harmlessly dissipated leaving behind a tiny lump; the expected bloodshed nowhere to be seen!

“Ahh!”

The furious chipped-horn imp traced the path of the arrow all the way back to the culprit, me. He bellowed at me in a thunderous voice, but this wasn’t enough to satisfy him. With a speed rivalling the arrow I fired and a strength rivalling a tank, he charged, knocking away the shield wielding Big 1 as he headed towards me in a straight line!