Chapter 418 – Black Forest

“An undead servant… army? How many would that even be!” Lilith asked, puzzled.

“I’m not sure either,” Vasida said. “When my mother was adventuring across the continent, it was still the end of the Divine Descent Era. Corpse materials were everywhere — the undead servants were all accumulated back then. She hadn’t raised any particularly powerful ones yet, so it was all about winning through sheer numbers.

Later, once she had individual undead servants with greater strength, the undead army became less useful.

After returning to the Wilds, she had even less need for them, so she let them roam free in the Black Forest, leaving them to survive through natural selection and produce true elites. She’d only go check on them every so often.

My mother wasn’t the only witch who did this either. All the retired Necromancy witches in the Wilds would toss their unneeded undead servants into the Black Forest, marking them with brightly colored strips of cloth.

In the Black Forest, even low-level undead servants might evolve into high-level ones over the long years.”

Mo Lan had a sudden realization. “No wonder all the books say that even though the Black Forest lies outside the Wilds, it’s still the witches’ domain! So it became a breeding ground for Necromancy witches’ undead servants.”

“The area Lady Ginia recommended we explore is all in the northern part of the Black Forest, near the Kingdom of Watson. So should we head north from Emerald Creek Plains first and then turn west into the Black Forest tomorrow, or cut directly northwest into the Black Forest?” Sylph asked.

“Let’s go straight into the Black Forest!” Lilith said. “Even if we don’t find any corpse materials, we can still observe the techniques the senior Necromancy witches used to create undead servants in their younger days!”

Mo Lan agreed as well. “I want to see how undead creatures live in their natural state! What you read in books can never compare to seeing it with your own eyes.”

“I also want to go straight into the Black Forest to see just how many undead servants my mother released in there. When I was little, she once left on a long trip and didn’t come back for three months. She only recently told me that she’d gone to the Black Forest to check on her undead army,” Vasida said.

“Then let’s head straight into the Black Forest!”

Sylph wasn’t as interested in Necromancy as the rest of them. Compared to Necromancy, she was more curious about the Animated Blackdeath Trees and the magical plants unique to the Black Forest. Which direction they entered from made no difference to her.

The next day, at first light, Mo Lan and the others packed up their tent and prepared to set off.

Only Mo Lan had seriously studied Necromancy, and she had even raised all her skills to Intermediate across the board, so she was the one to cast the feign-death spell on everyone.

“Give me your hand,” Mo Lan said.

The feign-death spell required direct physical contact with the target to cast successfully.

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph each extended their hands in turn.

Mo Lan used the hand wearing her wand ring to grasp each of their hands, holding for about three seconds before the feign-death spell was complete. “Done!”

“Sylph! Your skin color looks just like egg fried rice now! Lilith, Moira, you too!” Vasida exclaimed in shock.

“So does yours,” Mo Lan said. “It’s all the effect of the feign-death spell. Although most undead creatures no longer possess visual organs, there are some exceptions. The feign-death spell isn’t just an energy disguise — it also alters your appearance. If the spell were at a higher level, it could make you look even closer to an undead creature. Right now it only turns the skin to a grayish-blue corpse color; the pupils haven’t changed at all.”

Vasida conjured a water mirror and examined herself. “You’re right! The skin really does look like a corpse, but the eyes don’t.”

She imitated egg fried rice by fixing her gaze unblinkingly at a single spot. “Does this look more convincing?”

“Yes, yes, yes! You look like you’ve just been dug out of the ground! If we added a bit of dirt it’d be even better!” Lilith said, grabbing a handful of soil. “How about I touch up your makeup a bit!”

Vasida shielded her face in disgust while simultaneously wavering with indecision. “Do we really have to smear mud on our faces?”

“No need!” Mo Lan said. “The flying carpet can turn invisible. Even if there are undead creatures capable of sight, they won’t be able to see us. And even if they did discover us — we’re four Peak level Sorceresses. Are we really going to be afraid of one undead creature?”

“What if there are Peak level undead creatures in the Black Forest? Our Mana levels may be at Peak level, but our Magic levels are still far from it!” Sylph was not optimistic.

Mo Lan had originally shared this concern, but after hearing what Vasida had said, she was no longer worried.

“Think about it — in a place where Beyond Peak level Necromancy witches raise their undead armies, could there possibly be wild Peak level undead creatures?”

“No way!” Vasida said. “If there were, they’d have been captured and turned into undead servants long ago.”

Mo Lan nodded.

“So the Black Forest should only have relatively low-level wild undead creatures right now. The powerful ones all have owners. We might even be able to command them to back off just by speaking in Witch language. The feign-death spell disguise is merely to keep the Animated Blackdeath Trees from detecting us — it won’t hinder our movements at all.”

Only then did Sylph feel reassured.

“Sylph, bring Bi’er out too. It and Zhizhi both need the feign-death spell as well,” Mo Lan said.

“Little Vine probably doesn’t need it, right?” Lilith said.

Mo Lan cast the feign-death spell on Bi’er and Zhizhi while answering, “No, it doesn’t. Vampire Vines already exist naturally in the Black Forest, so its energy signature won’t cause any problems.”

“Everyone on the flying carpet!” Lilith brought out her flying carpet.

Previously, Lilith and Mo Lan had been taking turns piloting, half a day each.

After entering the Black Forest, Mo Lan would be responsible for maintaining the feign-death spells and using Divination Magic to determine the direction and location of corpse materials, so piloting the flying carpet was left entirely to Lilith.

Once aboard, Lilith took the front to control the carpet’s direction. Sylph and Vasida flanked her on either side — one readying Advanced Path Clearing, the other watching their surroundings and prepared to respond to any sudden attacks at a moment’s notice.

Mo Lan sat at the rear of the carpet, using Divination Magic to divine information about their journey.

The flying carpet crossed over the boundary marker, heading straight for the Black Forest not far ahead.

Before they had spotted even a single flying magical beast from Emerald Creek Plains outside the Wilds, they had already entered the Black Forest.

The Death Force within the Black Forest was so dense that it was visible even without Witch Sight.

A layer of gray fog that sunlight could not penetrate hung throughout the entire forest, and visibility was extremely low.

Within the gray mist, the pitch-black branches of blackdeath trees twisted at unnatural angles. Not a single leaf grew on them, and they looked like ghosts lurking in the fog, coiled and ready to strike.

A one-way sound-dampening magic circle had been set up on the flying carpet, so Mo Lan and the others could converse freely without worrying about disturbing anything in the forest.

Yet when they spoke, they still couldn’t help but lower their voices.

“These trees… they really won’t move, will they?” Vasida said cautiously. “I keep feeling like they’re secretly watching us, just waiting for us to go deeper before they reach out and grab us! Those few trees over there look much less threatening though.”