Anser sensed the change in their attitude, but he didn't think much of it. Displaying strength itself was the most effective way to earn respect.
He continuously cast Light on more than twenty arrows, causing the quiver to look like it was holding a miniature sun. The radiance was almost blinding.
Sergei immediately understood. He took the quiver and slung it over his shoulder before drawing his bow.
With a twang, a glowing arrow shot across dozens of meters and buried itself deep into the wall, illuminating an area more than ten meters wide.
"Let's move." Anser waved them forward as the group advanced along the pools of light.
Sergei kept shooting as they walked, firing one arrow every few dozen meters, alternating between both sides of the tunnel. Neither too high nor too low, the arrows resembled rows of streetlamps lighting up the dark passageway.
"How long can it last?" Iris asked.
"Close to two hours," Anser replied.
Light was only a cantrip and consumed very little magical power. He could keep casting it indefinitely. If he wanted to, he could easily turn darkness into daylight.
After turning into the right-hand fork, Gada, who was walking at the front, quickly discovered a flaming skull frozen into a solid block of ice. The green flames atop it had already gone out, making it look no different from an ordinary skull.
Bang!
He stomped down on it. The ice shattered, and the skull was driven deep into the ground, several cracks appearing across its surface.
"That won't work. You need to splash it with holy water or cast Dispel Evil and Good to destroy its essence."
Anser stepped forward, pulled out a bottle of holy water from the Avaricious Dragonhide Pouch, uncorked it, and carefully poured it over the skull as evenly as possible.
Accompanied by violent sizzling sounds and wisps of black smoke, the skull gradually lost its luster as though it had weathered for countless years before finally crumbling into fragments.
[Target killed. Gained 1100 experience points.]
"Those things are ridiculously hard to kill," he sighed.
Dispel Evil and Good was a 5th-level divine spell, something he obviously couldn't cast yet. Fortunately, he still had holy water, though his supply was running low. There were only two bottles left in his bag.
The group continued onward. The tunnel grew wider and wider, and after walking for one or two kilometers, it had expanded to several hundred meters in both width and height. They could only continue following the traces left on the ground.
Before long, a collapsed bronze gate appeared ahead of them, embedded diagonally into the stone floor. It looked strangely out of place, and nobody knew what had caused it.
Sergei fired several arrows in succession, illuminating the surrounding area.
Around the bronze gate sprawled vast stretches of ruins, heavily destroyed beyond recognition. No one could possibly reconstruct the original scene through imagination alone.
Everyone froze for a moment. None of them had expected to see something like this.
"This is the dungeon? Is there even any point guarding the entrance anymore?" Adem let out a disappointed sigh.
Sergei studied the tracks on the ground and muttered thoughtfully, "Those undead definitely ran in from here."
"Maybe that's exactly why they set up an ambush at the earlier fork," Anser said as he gazed into the ruins concealed by darkness, his eyes flickering faintly. "That means they don't know where the thing is either. They're afraid too many people will get inside and beat them to it."
"That makes sense, but I don't think this is the destination. Maybe this entire ruin is just the entrance." Sitting atop the flying carpet, Iris rested her chin on one hand and sank into thought.
'The night of the full moon?'
Anser's heart stirred as he recalled the old Myconid's description of the place.
"Exactly." Iris floated toward the bronze gate and tapped the emblem hidden beneath layers of verdigris with her wand. "This is the crescent holy symbol of Sehanine Moonbow, the elven goddess of the moon. If a magical labyrinth really exists here, then the night of the full moon is definitely the best time to enter."
She wasn't relying solely on speculation. She had researched the legends of Viheral before, and according to the stories, the city's destruction had been directly connected to two moon goddesses.
While they were still talking, the ground suddenly began to tremble.
From the distance came a thunderous roar of hoofbeats, echoing again and again as they rapidly grew louder.
Anser immediately transformed. His dragon wings whipped up a violent gale as his entire body shot upward at astonishing speed.
Sergei drew his bow, angling the arrowhead toward the sky. With a twang, the glowing arrow arced toward the source of the sound, tracing a long curve through the air.
The arrow plunged into the ruins, faintly illuminating overlapping silhouettes below—one side fleeing, the other in pursuit.
The fleeing group wore black robes. There were around a dozen of them, all looking panicked and disheveled. They were most likely priests of the church of Myrkul. The undead under their command had completely vanished, leaving only a black dragon zombie trailing behind to hold back the enemy.
The hoofbeats thundered closer.
Behind them was unmistakably a cavalry squad—black horses, black armor, and deep green light blazing from their eyes.
The mount ridden by the leading figure possessed a flaming mane, burning hooves, and smoldering eyes. Its four hooves never touched the ground as it galloped through the air itself at astonishing speed, no slower than an air elemental.
'A Death Knight?!'
Anser's mind tightened instantly, his heart pounding violently.
The figure looked exactly like one. He didn't dare gamble on it. Immediately descending, he shouted through Telepathy: "Death Knight! Run—!"
The moment Sergei and the others sensed the urgency in his voice, they turned and sprinted back the way they had come without hesitation.
Unfortunately, they were far too slow. With flight, Anser and Iris left them behind within seconds.
"This won't work!" With a wave of his hand, Anser immediately activated the Rod of Security.
Iris gazed deeply at him for a moment. She didn't resist, allowing him to send her into Holrewen.
Flying low beside Sergei, Anser branded them with the mark of the paradise realm. "Don't resist. I'll send you into an extradimensional space to hide for a while."
There was no time to cast Teleportation Circle. If he didn't want to abandon them, this was the only option.
"Alright…" Hearing the hoofbeats growing louder and louder, the three of them couldn't help feeling a growing sense of urgency and fear.
Three flashes of white light appeared in succession, and their figures vanished one after another.
Only then did Anser finally cast aside all restraint. He cast Fly on himself, spread his dragon wings wide, and pushed his speed to the limit. He was actually a hair faster than the Death Knight, quickly widening the distance between them.
"Anser—!"
A frantic shout rang out from behind him. The voice was hoarse, yet filled with unprecedented terror.
'Sosk.'
Anser glanced back at him indifferently.
"Save me! I'm the only one who knows where the treasure is!" Sosk shouted desperately.
At that moment, the Death Knight had already hacked the black dragon zombie into a mangled wreck. Its movements had slowed dramatically, and it was clearly on the verge of death.
As for the resistance from the black-robed priests, it looked pitifully weak. Several spells landed on the knight, yet none of them had any effect whatsoever.
'It really is a Death Knight.'
The more Anser observed the knight's appearance and combat power, the more convinced he became.
A Death Knight—a Challenge Rating 17 undead with legendary abilities and legendary resistances. Immune to necrotic damage, poison, exhaustion, fear, poisoning, and more.
This thing wasn't something ordinary adventurers could even dream of confronting. In front of it, even peak-tier professionals might not survive.
Anser wasn't being cowardly. As he was now, he simply had no way to kill a Death Knight, even if it stood there motionless.
The most critical reason was the Death Knight's trait: Undead Restoration.
[Undead Restoration]: If a Death Knight is destroyed before achieving redemption, it regains a new body and returns to life with full hit points after 1d10 days. The new body appears in a place of great significance to the Death Knight.
So-called redemption referred to the process through which a Death Knight sought forgiveness for the grave sins committed during life and restored purity to its soul. If it failed to complete that self-redemption, then it was effectively immortal.
If Anser's guess was correct, this Death Knight was the guardian of these ruins. Its "redemption" was definitely tied to the city of Viheral. Even if killed, it would eventually revive somewhere within the dungeon.
"Anser, there's an Artifact here—!" Sosk roared unwillingly. "Do you want to become a legend? This may be the only chance you'll ever have in your life!"
'Heh. So now you're cursing me too.'
Anser was speechless.
Seeing that Anser still showed no reaction, Sosk could no longer hold back and finally revealed his trump card outright: "This place leads to a divine kingdom!"
His dry voice echoed through the underground ruins, causing all the black-robed priests to turn their heads in shock.
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