Chapter 454 The Lich
The moon could not be seen on a snowy night. It was completely dark.
The wind was too strong for a torch to be lit, and the windproof lamps were too dim and could only illuminate a radius of a dozen meters. So, by the time they saw the rock building, it was only fifteen meters ahead of them, as if it had just “sp.a.w.ned.”
Both the leader of the caravan and the guide were stunned at the gigantic, ugly, cubic, rock building.
The size was a comparative concept.
Roland was used to the super malls in modern society that could easily be as large as two football fields, so the rock house he built was small in his eyes.
After all, with a length and width of ten meters and a height of six meters, the house had a coverage of only a hundred square meters. Roland’s house in reality had a coverage of three hundred square meters. He was already used to that.
Therefore, a house with a coverage of a hundred square meters was small in his eyes, but it was rather s.p.a.cious as a single room.
The caravan stopped before the building. Everybody looked at the building in the wilderness with fear.
Just now, someone had circled the building to examine it. They didn’t find any doors or windows but only several holes which seemed to be for ventilation purposes.
The bold ones among them hit the rocky house with a hammer, but only some powder fell after several dull noises.
The hitter said gloomily, “It’s at least one meter thick, and it’s very hard.”
“This rocky building must’ve been established with magic. We’re supposed to leave immediately, but…” Wallace, the leader of the caravan, looked at the guide near him. “McKenzie, tell me the truth. Can you take us to the next village in three hours?”
After a long time, the guide struggled to say, “No!”
His back was further lowered after he said that.
He knew very well that, after saying that, his reputation would be ruined even if they could survive the blizzard tonight, and he would unlikely be hired to lead the way for a big caravan again.
But he did find it rather queer. He was very familiar with the road to the Froststar Kingdom and had never made any mistakes. He could easily go home with his eyes closed. Why on earth had he taken the caravan to this place?
He had no idea what happened.
Wallace gazed at the guide angrily, and the guide lowered his head, not daring to look back.
After a long time, Wallace shouted at the back of the caravan, “Everybody, listen up. Build a camp around this rocky building and use it to block the wind. It’s up to you whether or not we can survive.”
Though the wind was strong, everybody heard Wallace’s voice.
The guide said in a low voice, “Mr. Wallace, this building is rather weird. Is it really a good idea to stay here?”
“It’s a better idea than getting lost in the wilderness and dying an unknown death in the snow.”
The guide heaved a sigh and backed off.
The people in the caravan instantly pushed the wagons behind the building and arranged them in a semicircle.
The wagons were placed outside, the dozen horses crouched in the middle with thick gra.s.s blankets to protect them, and the forty people hid themselves in the innermost section.
A barrier ten meters wide and five meters tall was rather effective.
None of the men or horses were affected by the howling wind, although snowflakes dropped on them now and then.
Still, it was much better than spending the whole night in the cold wind.
Wallace felt that they would be able to survive the cold night if no more accidents happened.
It was a misfortune to get lost. The night wind in the north was too dreadful. Too many caravans and men had been frozen in the wild after failing to reach towns in time.
But it was truly a fortune that they found this shelter.
He was only curious about the purpose of this weird building.
Did it not need an entrance?
While having food, Wallace observed the rock building before his eyes and began to speculate.
Roland continued surfing on the forum in his room.
Actually, he had known about the caravan since the moment they arrived.
Three transparent spiders the size of fingernails were monitoring the surroundings on the rooftop.
The spiders, with their basic Dark Vision, had rather powerful eyesight.
Roland had already noticed the caravan before they found the rock house.
Roland wasn’t bothered that they protected themselves against the wind with his little house.
Clearly, those people were in trouble, and he could help them without doing anything in person. So, he was glad to offer help.
But Roland didn’t intend to do more than that, as those people were merely afraid of the snow and were prepared for everything else.
Roland continued surfing on the forum.
There were too many funny people online. They were truly a source of joy. Roland wouldn’t be bored even if he were to browse through the forum for a year.
However, he exclaimed in the middle of his reading.
From the images sent back by the magic spiders, Roland found that he was surrounded by a bunch of skeletons who were covered in ragged clothes.
But the people from the caravan weren’t aware of it yet.
Because of the dimness of the night, they really couldn’t see things far away.
Roland quit the forum and stood up.
The pictures were sent by the magic spiders continuously.
There were lots of skeletons. Some were barehanded, but some were holding rusty weapons.
Roland even saw ghosts with twisted faces floating behind the skeletons.
Were they necromancers or liches?
Though they could all summon undead creatures, and their abilities seemed similar, they were essentially very different.
The necromancers were alive, and the liches were dead.
Besides, liches were much more powerful than necromancers of the same level.
Necromancers were thirty percent Mages plus seventy percent Summoners, while liches were eighty percent Mages plus eighty percent Summoners.
Roland frowned. Those skeletons and ghosts were no trouble for him, but he didn’t think that the caravan could escape.
Or rather, those skeletons were here precisely for the caravan.
The skeletons got closer and closer to the resting caravan. Soon, they were no more than twenty meters away.
The ghosts who were floating in midair ignoring the strong wind exclaimed in joy when they saw so many living people.
The ghosts’ exclamations of joy were earsplitting screams in the ears of normal human beings.
Hearing the noises, everybody in the caravan stood up. They all screamed upon seeing the purple fire in the eyes of the skeletons around them.
Many of them picked up their weapons, but none dared to charge forward.
While those skeletons slowly pressed forward, they retreated instinctively and didn’t stop even though their backs had hit Roland’s rock house.
Many people began to cry with their weapons in their hands.
For ordinary people, everything about magic was unbeatable.
Besides, the ghosts in midair… Having traveled in lots of places, they had heard the bards’ performances in many taverns, and they knew that physical attacks didn’t work on ghosts.
They couldn’t get away from the ghosts even if they could escape from the skeletons.
They were already doomed.
McKenzie, the guide, had already given up. He sat on the ground and cried while holding his head.
Wallace was desperate. “So, this shelter was just bait to lure us here. It’s a trap for the specters to eat us.”
Their lack of resistance was understandable.
It was common sense in this world that ordinary people couldn’t resist magic.
Wallace chuckled and fell on the ground with a grim face.
He gave up resistance too.
At this moment, a noise burst out above them, followed by a dazzling source of light. Three luminous b.a.l.l.s illuminated the environment as bright as day.
They raised their heads, only to see a young man standing on the rooftop of the rock building in a blue magic robe.
“I certainly don’t want to be blamed for that.”
Roland snapped his fingers, and the hardened snowy ground nearby was turned into a swamp. The slow skeletons sank in the swamp, and those behind them continued moving forward without any awareness.
The dozens of ghosts screeched and lunged forward.
The ordinary people all had a strong headache after hearing the ear-splitting noises. They covered their ears with their hands, but it didn’t help.
Roland extended his finger and hit the first ghost with Lightning Chain, burning it to ashes that were blown away by the night wind.
Then, the Lightning Chain jumped and obliterated another seven ghosts before it disappeared.
Apart from the spells in the cla.s.ses of light and life, the lightning spells and the fiery ones were quite destructive to undead creatures too.
If he weren’t worried that he might accidentally hurt the caravan, Roland could easily kill all the disgusting creatures with a huge fireball.
Now that the eight ghosts were annihilated, the skeletons at the edge stopped walking into the swamp.
Everybody in the caravan held their breaths, not daring to move at all.
They feared that they might draw attention if they moved.
It wouldn’t be a good thing whether they caught the attention of the skeletons or that of the Mage behind them.
But they knew that the Mage behind them seemed to be on their side.
So, they sincerely hoped that the Mage could win.
At this moment, the swamp was about to be frozen again. Roland snapped his finger and turned it muddy.
Then, a luminous ball was quickly pressed to the back of the ocean of skeletons, illuminating a “person” in special clothes for Roland.
The person was wearing a black magic robe. His hair was as dry as withered gra.s.ses, and his cheeks were absolutely flat. He looked like a corpse.
His forehead was full of wrinkles. Even the skin had been worn off, exposing the white frontal bone.
As for his other body parts, they were all hidden in the black robe and couldn’t be seen clearly.
However, judging from his appearance, it was clear that the person was a lich.
Roland even saw the health bar above his head, followed by a suffix: “LV9 Elite Creature.”
The guide suddenly screamed with his eyes widened, “It’s a Tundra Reaper! I know why we got lost! This creature influenced us!”
Hearing the guide’s scream, the lich grinned and showed its yellow teeth.
Then, he looked at Roland up and down provocatively, as if he were evaluating the quality of Roland’s body.
After that, his eyes filled with pa.s.sion.