LRAB Page 158
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"It's a pity I'm not a loli anymore, but I was quite mischievous when I was little. I feel like if you saw me back then, you might not like lolis anymore!"
"How could that be! Even if she were a little devil, I..." You suddenly paused, recalling the troublesome personality of your daughter with Jennifer from the previous simulation, and gasped in shock. The culprit was Jennifer herself! It must be something she inherited!
You chatted casually in the dimly lit corridor, soon arriving at the massive double doors in the center. Just as you approached, you heard a hoarse voice from inside:
"Little girl, let go of it! This is absolutely unforgivable... How dare you treat my staff so violently?! That's not how you play with a staff!"
"Holy crap, is this guy a lolicon?!" you exclaim in shock, kicking the door open with your big foot and yelling as you pull out a hammer.
"FBI, open the door! Hands up! Lolicon deserves to die... Uh... What are you doing here?"
The rotting undead turned to look at you, paused for a moment, lowered its raised hands, and scratched its head. High on the roof, beside a huge hole, Gan Gan was pulling out a staff that had been driven into the ceiling, while the dog sat on a beam wagging its tail and watching the scene.
Hearing your voice, Gan Gan turned around in surprise, waved at you, and shouted, "I'm here! Latis, help me! I accidentally grabbed this staff, and then it shot out of control!"
"...Huh?" you exclaimed, sounding bewildered.
After Gan Gan's incoherent explanation, you finally understood what had happened.
[It turned out that Gan Gan and Gouzi were blown directly to the deepest part of the tunnel by the violent wind. She initially thought she was going to be smashed to pieces by the hard stone walls, but unexpectedly, in her instinctive struggle, the hammer hanging on her body accidentally broke through the tunnel's ceiling. The swirling wind then had nowhere to go, blowing them into the mine shaft above.]
They could have followed the mine tunnel to find their way out, but as she walked, she discovered a large piece of "unattribute mixed silver" ore. Thinking the town needed it, she stopped out of habit.
[But since she didn't bring a pickaxe, Gan Gan thought, "I'll just let the dog eat and poop as it pleases, then put it in a bag!"... So, she watched as the gold-devouring dog began to frantically gnaw on the huge ore...]
[Then, the ore was quickly consumed, and with a crisp cracking sound, the ground of the mine tunnel they were in split open, and they fell into the central hall of the tower...]
"Anyway, thankfully I wasn't seriously injured! Just as I was getting up, I saw a stick nearby, used it to brace myself, and then it flew off like a shot!" Gan Gan exclaimed, gesturing excitedly.
"Then I flew onto the beam...and then, I kept fiddling with the stick, but it didn't take me down; instead, it flew out again and pierced the ceiling..."
You silently stare at the ghost with a buttocks mark on her chest and abdomen, unsure how to tell her that you almost sat on this unfortunate soul to death. You sigh, shake your head, and skip the topic.
"Let's not talk about that now." You crossed your arms, frowned, and looked at the rotting corpse. "My friend, how can you still have consciousness when you're so decayed?"
"Are you talking to me?" the undead asked, pointing to itself with a finger that revealed its bare bone.
"...Yes." You suddenly have a bad feeling.
"Oh," the undead scratched his head and chuckled, "maybe it's because my brain hasn't rotted away yet."
[“…” You shuddered, taking a step back in horror. It was dry humor, the kind of dry humor that leaves you speechless and makes you want to pee!]
You composed yourself, rationally abandoning the pursuit of that question, and instead asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
The spirit nodded and said without hesitation, "I am a corpse, and I am dead here."
"...Can you please stop with the lame jokes?!" you couldn't help but yell. "What's your connection to those dwarven-guarded zombies? Are you a necromancer?"
The undead paused, thought for a moment, and said, "I had a very good relationship with them. Although we weren't born on the same day, month, and year, we died on the same day, month, and year... And although I don't know if I'm a necromancer, I know I am a necromancer..."
"Aaaaaah, I can't take it anymore!" You punched the undead hard in the stomach, tears welling in your eyes, and shouted, "You know, people who listen to lame jokes all the time are prone to wet themselves!"
"Ah~" The undead took two steps back, touched its abdomen, hesitated for a moment, and said:
"But my bladder is already rotten..."
"Are you crazy?!" you yelled, clutching your head. Taking a deep breath and forcing yourself back to your senses, you calmly asked:
"Are you a friend of the owner of this fortress? How many years have you been here? What happened back then?"
"Ah, Tower Fortress..." the undead sighed wistfully. Just when you thought he was finally about to reveal some real clue, he reached into his stomach, pulled out a piece of moldy bread, and murmured:
"It's been twenty years already. If I had known, I wouldn't have been so greedy and eaten that tower before I left..."
"…Never mind." Realizing that continuing the conversation would only lead to mental pollution, you decisively ended the topic, leaped onto the crossbeam, and scooped them down, one dog in your left arm and one dog in your right.
"Ah, the staff!" the undead cried, waving his hands. "Please, help me with my staff, kind warrior! As a male mage, even if my staff is rotten, I can't be without it!"
"A staff isn't really that important, is it?" You sighed helplessly, jumped back onto the beam, and muttered to yourself.
"You won't need it anyway!"
"I can do without it, but I can't be without it..." the undead muttered. "A mage without a staff is like a warrior without a brain. It doesn't really matter, but having it is better than not having it..."
[You painfully reach for the staff on the ceiling. At this moment, all you want is for this wretched undead to shut up. The goddess really has no eyes, no, no ears. Otherwise, she should have destroyed the undead's vocal cords first...]
[You pull hard, about to yell at the spirit to shut up, when you are horrified to find that the thin ceiling begins to collapse rapidly under your merciless, violent pull.]
You immediately did a somersault and landed on the ground, dodging the falling debris. After a moment of chaos, the ceiling collapse finally stopped. You breathed a sigh of relief, raised your staff, and offered it to the undead, saying:
“Here, this is yours…”
Before you could finish speaking, you stared blankly at the remaining piece of the staff handle in your hand. You chuckled dryly, then rummaged through the messy ground to retrieve the other broken piece. After a moment of silence, you grinned and said:
"Oh, lost spirit, did you lose this short staff or this long staff?"
The undead stared wide-eyed, and after adjusting his nearly popped eyeballs, he shouted in a hoarse voice, "What long staff, short staff? You just broke my staff!"
"Haha, look at you, why are you so hung up on the length? Don't you think short is cute too?" You coughed twice and continued:
“Honest spirit, since you told the truth, I will return both pieces of the staff to you. Be grateful…”
The undead caught the staff you tossed to it, its eye twitched for a moment, and then a visibly fresh color returned to its face. You couldn't help but stroke your chin with satisfaction and sighed, "I'm such a good person..."
"How dare you be so insolent... Damn it, damn it!" Thick black energy emanated from the undead, who suddenly shouted wildly:
"Die, die, die! Let us all fall into eternal death... Awaken the dead!"
A chilling surge of magical energy erupted from the staff. Your expression changed, and you grabbed the dog and Gan, retreating swiftly into Jennifer's instantly activated divine shield. Watching the black smoke slowly rising before the undead, you took a deep breath and said in a low voice:
"Prepare for battle!"
You stare intently at the undead, and after noticing him hovering high in the air, staff in hand, you frown and think to yourself:
"It seems his brain isn't completely rotten after all; he still retains basic combat awareness..."
[From within the black smoke, a massive corpse slowly rose. The buzzing sound of gas being squeezed out of its enormous cavity revealed the corpse's surging power. You frantically considered your strategy, when suddenly the corpse seemed to be missing something, abruptly turning and slamming its fist into the ground behind it with a thud.]
"Wow, this is amazing!" After the smoke cleared, you stared at the enormous corpse for a moment, then couldn't help but exclaim:
"Now it's finally brainless, and it doesn't even have a head anymore!"
Chapter 170 Griffin-Style Aerial Stake Strike
[With Jennifer's instantaneous divine blessing, your nausea vanished. You glanced at Jennifer, now bathed in light, and without asking how much longer she could hold on, magical wings suddenly sprouted from your back, propelling you towards the undead suspended in mid-air by the staff.]
[“Roar!” The giant corpse felt intense malice towards the power of light. Its fist swept past you and slammed into the divine shield. With a deafening crash, the divine shield shattered, plunging the arena into darkness.]
"I'm alright!" Jennifer's voice came from the corner, and along with it, a divine light that detected traps shone around you. You spun rapidly in mid-air to dodge the undead's hidden spikes, then countered with a spell to extinguish the dark red smoke rising from his staff. You glanced at Jennifer, who was frantically trying to escape the giant corpse's fists, and shouted:
“Jennifer, withdraw your power of light!”
Jennifer didn't answer. She assessed the situation in the dim light, and, concluding that your battle with the undead couldn't be disrupted by the giant corpse, she took a deep breath, unleashed all the divine power within her, and swung her longsword violently.
[As the longsword hovered, a myriad of lights suddenly appeared in the arena, like twinkling lights in a thousand homes. Your spirits lifted, and the speed at which you cast spells increased dramatically.]
[Correspondingly, the black smoke on the undead contracted again, and the giant corpse, unable to find its target, began to move frantically. You took one last look at Jennifer, who was using her physical strength to climb onto the giant corpse and begin to wreak havoc, took a deep breath, and, empowered by the Light Sword Array, plunged into the black mist surrounding the undead.]
"You know what? I hate young couples the most."
The hoarse voice of the undead came from the black mist, and he continued to speak to himself: "Especially living young couples, every time I see them, I feel so jealous I want to die..."
"You're already dead!" you couldn't help but mutter. After failing to dispel the black mist with "Dispel Magic," you took a deep breath and cast an enchantment on yourself called "Acceleration," which would make you faster.
"After the tower fell, I knew I couldn't get out. After all, it's common knowledge that the magic network signal is weak in dwarven territory," the undead murmured.
"Fortunately, there's always a way out. After several days of sleepless meditation, I actually found a new magic element. I tried my best to gather it, hoping to stabilize the magic element environment and reconnect the magic network. Unexpectedly, after the magic element gathered, it directly caused my body to fester..."
"Who asked you? Why did you suddenly start telling stories? This isn't the set of The Voice of Norad, is it?" you muttered, narrowing your eyes as you watched the undead gradually emerge from the black mist.
"Then I realized that this might be the legendary necromantic magic element." The undead was so engrossed in his own story that he couldn't pull himself away. "Sometimes I wonder, am I a genius? Discovering a new magic element at such a young age, even though it killed me, I was going to die sooner or later anyway, so this is kind of like fast-forwarding into my life... Ah!"
You watch the ghost slam into the wall with a thud after your punch, twist your wrist, and scoff, "Do you think you're Marie Curie? If you're a ghost, just obediently die!"
"My past self is long dead!" the undead roared, flying straight at you with his staff in hand, spitting a mouthful of acid at your body, and hoarsely shouting, "Now standing before you is the great Nowuru Abomination, the first necromancer of the Kingdom of Norard!"
You instinctively used "Teleport" to dodge the undead's acid, but when you emerged from the dimensional rift, the undead had vanished.
"Here!" The ghoul's howl made you turn your head instantly, but this swift movement brought you face-to-face with his dark, hollow eyes. A mad smile curled at the corner of his mouth as he shouted, "Mind-Controlling Gaze!"
An overwhelming drowsiness overwhelmed you. You struggled to fly towards him, but your body began to sink uncontrollably, as if a seductive voice kept saying in your mind, "Sleep, sleep, just five more minutes, you won't be late..."
"I don't believe you for a second. You've deducted all my points..." you muttered instinctively, your eyelids already closing involuntarily. You mumbled, "Damn it... who... turned off my alarm..."
You slumped towards the ground, and just as you desperately felt your toes touch the earth, the ground suddenly began to shake violently.
"What?!" With the undead's incredulous cry, a sudden storm of magical energy shattered his focused control over "Mind Gaze." You immediately opened your eyes and looked at the dwarf girl wielding a hammer on the high platform at the center of the room.
"Rise, Tower!" Gan Gan shouted incoherently from the high platform, unleashing her frenzied hammering technique. At that moment, the Tower seemed to obey her command, trembling violently. You could hear the massive rumbling of the Tower's outer walls and rocks grinding against each other, displaying its imposing grandeur with a heavy and powerful presence.
[The sound of collapsing rock came from above, and a sliver of light shone through a hole in the ceiling. You looked at the bewildered undead, their magic imbalance causing them to lose their way, and sneered. You stomped your foot on the ground, launching yourself into the air like a cannonball.]
"Give it to me!" You tensed your waist and abdomen, and with a powerful kick like a lashing whip, shattered the undead's wrist bone. Then, you immediately spun around to catch the falling staff, grinning, "Enemy, I'll take his staff!"
"Give it back!" The undead, now stripped of his staff, was terrified and immediately began to fall. He quickly pulled out the broken staff handle and managed to steady himself, swaying precariously.
"So all your spells are cast using your staff? No wonder you talked so much nonsense earlier!" You took a deep breath, feeling the power stirring within you, and laughed as you said:
"In short, it's time for you to finally meet your goddess!"
Having said that, you no longer suppressed your fighting spirit, letting your muscles envelop your staff as you charged towards the undead. Your eyes widened as you looked at the increasingly approaching undead, their faces filled with terror, and you roared wildly:
"Show your power! Level 4 Combat Skill - Griffin-Style Aerial Stake Strike!"
A savage force compels you to roar involuntarily. Your feet slam into the undead's chest, crushing and shattering its ribcage. This violent impact accelerates its descent, and you, as if transformed into a griffin, arch your back high and plunge the staff at your side into the undead's head.
"W-what?! This is the Griffin-style aerial pile driver?!" Even you yourself were utterly shocked by the sight. The surge of energy within you erupted like a raging tide! One strike, two strikes… In just a few seconds, you pounded the undead hundreds of times like a real pile driver!
With a bang, you stood up amidst a cloud of dust. Looking at the gruesome head of the undead on the ground, you immediately adopted the expression of an old man gagged at his phone on the subway, gagged, and muttered:
"Damn, that was too ruthless... We should use it less often in the future and accumulate good karma..."
You calmed your remorseful heart, shook your head, picked up your staff, and decided to go back and investigate why the spirits needed it to cast spells.
"Jennifer, we..." Before you could finish speaking, the hoarse laughter of the undead suddenly rang in your ears again. An evil magic instantly emanated from the staff and clung to you. In a daze, you heard the undead's sinister voice scream wildly:
"Kid, haven't you learned that magic is born from the soul?! Calling you a warrior is no exaggeration! You should have understood when you discovered that my spells all depend on my staff, right? My soul is contained within my staff, hahahahaha!"
"W-what?!" you exclaimed in shock. "You mean, your true form is a staff right now? This situation reminds me of those years when I was disguised as Brother Bull..."
"What the hell?" The undead had no idea what you were talking about. He paused for a moment, then continued, "Anyway, I'll take your body. Hehehe, young man, your muscles are really well-developed, delicious... ah!"
Before the spirit could finish speaking, it transformed into a mournful howl. At the same time, a sudden burst of light flooded your vision, so bright that you could not see anything for a moment.
"You want to steal my man? Did you even ask my permission?!" Jennifer's angry voice rang out behind you, followed by an unstoppable surge of power that swept over your body, and the wailing of the dead vanished.