Under the trembling leadership of the recruits, Mori and his group entered the cemetery.
"Look, what is that!"
A recruit discovered a stone coffin placed on the ground through the firelight. The stone coffin looked ancient, its exterior filled with a sense of vicissitudes of time.
The group walked towards it.
The lid of the stone coffin was opened and pushed aside.
"Was it grave robbers who dug up the stone coffin?"
A soldier analyzed.
Mori shook his head. No grave robber would lift such a heavy stone coffin and do such a redundant thing.
As he approached the stone coffin, Mori found that the soil nearby had been pushed aside from the inside.
Could it be that the stone coffin had risen from the ground by itself? This was very likely! If so, it would not be a monster that the recruits could handle.
"Recruits, step back! Everyone, draw your weapons and apply silver juice!"
Silver juice is a synthesized silver created with alchemy. Applying it to the surface of a weapon can temporarily give the weapon the effect of a silver weapon, thus increasing its attack power against some undead monsters.
This is an alternative method for those who cannot afford magic weapons and silver weapons.
It is common among some veterans and adventurers.
Mori and several outstanding soldiers in the team took out a white bottle, opened the cap carefully, and poured a few drops of silver liquid onto their swords.
Instead of using their hands directly, they used a coarse cloth that had been prepared beforehand to apply the silver juice to one side of the sword blade.
After finishing, they had no intention of sharing the silver juice with others.
After all, silver juice is a relatively expensive potion, and the purchase price is not cheap.
With Mori and several experienced veterans, it was enough to deal with the situation. Other people didn't need to waste money applying the silver juice.
In about fifteen minutes, the silver juice would evaporate, and the weapon would lose its additional silver attribute.
So, under Mori's signal, he and several veterans who had applied silver juice to their weapons approached the stone coffin cautiously, aiming for a quick battle.
They approached the coffin carefully with torches in hand.
The stone coffin was empty?
Mori thought to himself that it would be troublesome now. It wouldn't be difficult to find the advanced skeleton if they searched the entire cemetery, but he might have to waste another silver juice by then.
"Look, what is that!"
A veteran seemed to have found something. Following his gaze, Mori saw a withered hand sticking out from under the lid of the stone coffin.
Mori noticed a detail.
Although the hand was extremely withered, as if it had been dead for a long time, the nails were beautifully polished, just like the nails of a noble lady, clean and tidy.
He had a feeling in his heart!
"You two recruits, come and move the stone slab off the corpse! Others, be on your guard."
The two recruits who were called swallowed their saliva. Although they were afraid, they dared not disobey the orders.
Slowly moving the stone coffin lid off the withered hand, a horrifyingly withered blonde female corpse was revealed to everyone's eyes.
Some maggots and insects wriggled and rolled in the opened organs and flesh of the female corpse, which had become a playground for them.
"Ugh..."
A recruit vomited on the spot.
Even some of the veterans felt a bit uncomfortable in their stomachs.
Mori squatted down with a frown, holding his breath, and touched the fabric on the female corpse's body.
Judging by the texture of the fabric, it was definitely high-quality silk that only rich merchants and nobles could afford. This woman's identity was certainly extraordinary.
He touched the bloodstains on the clothes. The dark bloodstains were relatively fresh, and the time of death was preliminarily estimated to be no more than three days.
Mori thought he had guessed who the female corpse was. He couldn't help but feel a chill for the governor, Viscount Oport Will Harrison. If this person died here, the governor's position would soon be gone.
If he was unlucky, even the title of nobility would be stripped.
He hoped that the female corpse was not the person he had guessed.
The eradication of the undead seemed insignificant compared to this person. The important thing was why this person died so horribly in this place.I must hurry back to report to the Guard Captain, but I cannot report to the Governor.
Suddenly, another small problem was placed in front of Mori. Although in theory, the scene should not be disturbed, if this person was really that person, he could not let her continue to expose the corpse in the wilderness, otherwise he would be punished.
"All six of you take off your shirts, tear them apart, and use dead knots to secure them into corpse wraps."
"Yes!"
As Mori, who was squatting, turned his head to give orders, the dry and sunken white eyeball of the female corpse seemed to move a little.
Suddenly, she sat up and bit Mori's neck tightly.
Mori didn't expect this situation to occur. He was knocked down by the zombie transformed from the female corpse, and Mori was covered with the dried intestines and maggots of the female corpse.
Mori hit the female corpse's head and chin with several heavy punches, making a crisp fracture sound.
But it couldn't make the female corpse let go.
Biting his teeth, he reached for his sword that was stuck in the ground not far away and stabbed it into the female corpse's head, twisting it clockwise. With the help of silver, the attack worked, and the female corpse stopped moving.
She collapsed weakly on Mori's body.
Enduring the severe pain in his neck and the feeling of nausea.
Prying open the female corpse's jaw, Mori's neck had two rows of blood holes bitten in it, constantly bleeding.
Fortunately, the big artery was not bitten through.
"Bring me the lower level recovery potion and the lower level purification potion!"
The sound of running water came from nearby.
No one responded to him, and a chill rose from his back.
Mori turned his head to see that all his subordinates had fallen to the ground.
A dark shadow appeared behind him, with two unstable red flames in his hollow eyes.
Mori dare not look back, he did not know if he could escape this dangerous situation this time...
In a beautifully decorated spacious room in the city hall, a man seemed to be sitting in the chair somewhat exhausted.
He was a somewhat obese middle-aged man with a carefully groomed mustache. Although he seemed exhausted sitting in the chair, he maintained a good posture with his back straight.
This was a habit left from receiving aristocratic education since childhood, and it was something he would do naturally without paying attention.
This middle-aged man was the Governor of Kofeld, Viscount Obert Wyll Harrison.
A month ago, he received news of frequent female disappearances in the kingdom's territory, and most of the missing women were confirmed to have extremely high magical talents.
What's more, many women mysteriously disappeared from their homes leaving no signs of struggle.
Some of the missing women were daughters of nobles with guarded houses, but they still disappeared mysteriously, and even the guards who set up the area were unaware that their masters had disappeared under their noses.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, both the kingdom and the Church sent their best men to search for clues to the missing cases.
High rewards were also offered at the Adventurers' Guilds in various regions.
As a result, all three Mithril-level adventurer teams within the kingdom had been dispatched to investigate.
Knowing that the situation was not simple, Viscount Harrison immediately increased the intensity of patrols. Originally, the cavalry patrol outside the city had temporarily increased from one team to three, strictly screening suspicious personnel.
The number of soldiers on patrol in the city also doubled.
Despite this, an important person still mysteriously disappeared.
This person was the fiancée of his immediate superior, Duke Lapimentes, who was said to be the granddaughter of the court magician from the neighboring Spelk Empire, possessing both outstanding beauty and exceptional magical talent. She graduated from the Imperial National Magic Academy as the third seat.
She was recognized as a genius apprentice court magician at the time of her graduation.
How Duke Lapimentes knew her, his subordinate did not know, but it was said that he had spent a lot of effort and pursued her for a long time before finally winning her heart.
This time, according to the unwritten custom among nobles, she came to inspect the territory as the future first wife of the Duke, to highlight her position in the territory.To protect her, he wanted to dispatch two squads of soldiers to take turns as her guards. Unfortunately, this was declined, as it was said that the protection of the knight dispatched by the duke would suffice.
The knight in question, Sir Angus White Francis, was well known to Viscount Harrison. He was the right-hand man of Duke Laprimantes, and a legendary figure with great honor in the kingdom due to his remarkable achievements in battle.
Out of trust in this formidable man, Harrison did not persist in his offer of guards. But to his surprise, she mysteriously disappeared.
If this matter were not handled well, it might escalate into a conflict between countries.
Now, the infuriating Angus stood before him, his eyebrows looking as sharp as ever, showing no signs of panic.
The more calm he seemed, the more Viscount Harrison felt suffocated, thinking that his own demise was caused by Angus.
Although a large part of the responsibility lay with Angus, Harrison, as the governor of the missing person's territory, could not escape the duke's anger.
He might not be able to preserve his position as governor.
He couldn't help but hope for the swift return of his fiancée.
As a traditional noble custom, the knights who protect their masters, if unable to ensure their safety, would commit suicide for the sake of honor.
So in his eyes, Angus was basically as good as dead.
But it was different for himself. He had finally inherited his father's position after his death and became a viscount.
His life had just begun.
Upon taking office, he had worked hard for a year and a half to solve the numerous problems left behind by his father. Under his governance, Kofudell had become more stable, attracting more people to settle in the area.
He encouraged farmers to cultivate wasteland and plant fields and reduced all taxes related to agriculture.
He allocated a large sum from the municipal construction fund for adventurers to eradicate nearby monster settlements, creating more safe land for farmers.
At the same time, he opened up more liberal trade, strictly investigating soldiers' extortion of merchants, and dispatched knights to patrol the main trade routes to provide a safe trading environment for merchants.
In just five years, the population of Kofudell's territory had increased by nearly 40%, and nearly 80% of the wasteland had been developed, with many new villages formed by destitute farmers who had come to settle.
He believed that with his ability, in just another five years, or perhaps even four, Kofudell under his jurisdiction could become the richest city in the kingdom.
With his ability, this was just the first step; he was not satisfied with just this…
However, all his years of painstaking governance and effort were now threatened to be destroyed due to someone else's mistake and a mere woman. This was something he simply could not accept.
