Chapter 74: Cutting Vegetables

Whoosh—

Accompanied by the sharp, ear-piercing whistle, a cold wind blew through the empty and gloomy cemetery.

The temperature around, which was not high to begin with, dropped again.

Gray-white faint light, visible to the naked eye like mist, gradually appeared in the air.

That was a manifestation of the highly concentrated undead aura.

"Clack clack..."

The hair-raising sound of bone friction came from the depths of the mud in the vibration of the ground dust.

Just like the plant buds breaking through the soil layer, mud stars and gravel rolled down, and the eye-stinging, dazzling pale color appeared before the eyes of everyone on the field.

In just a few seconds.

Nearly thirty skeletons of various sizes crawled up from the graves around the wooden house.

A pair of deep, empty eye sockets stared silently at the crowd before the door.

Even though he had long been psychologically prepared and had experienced many sudden encounter battles.

Xia Nan still felt his scalp tingling, with no bottom in his heart.

Unlike those dangerous and manic monsters in the Mist Forest.

These bone frames, reflecting cold light, couldn't find a piece of flesh and blood on their bodies, and naturally, there was no possibility of roaring and howling.

They just looked at you silently.

Carrying the gray death energy in the air, they approached you step by step amidst the sound of bone collisions.

That invisible pressure was even heavier than facing twice the number of goblins.

If it were someone with a slightly more fragile psychological endurance, I'm afraid they would have thrown away their weapons and turned to run away by now.

"Hoo."

Xia Nan breathed slowly, exhaling a white smoke in the cold air.

The hilt in his palm became increasingly hot.

Buzz—

Behind him, the passionate and high-pitched lute music sounded at the right time.

In an instant, it swept away the originally silent and stiff atmosphere on the field.

Morale was boosted!

Xia Nan stepped forward fiercely, rapidly closing the distance while carefully examining the enemy's form.

Compared to those skeletal undead that had already surrounded them and were gradually approaching.

This skeleton, which crawled out from the mud beneath the gravedigger's bone whistle, seemed to be a relatively elite individual among them.

The thick skeleton frame was clearly a few sizes larger—reaching the level of nearly two meters;

The bone color was also paler, and the bone joints were faintly covered with gray-white light, strengthening the body's stability and making it not easy to fall apart.

It was also wearing half a dirty leather armor, a small round shield on its left forearm, and the rugged bone fingers of its right hand were holding a rusty single-handed sword full of cracks.

It was an adventurer's posture.

Having never fought this kind of enemy before and not knowing the depth of the other's strength, Xia Nan didn't dare to be careless.

His gaze swept, weighing the combat distance between them in his heart.

Finally, at a position where he was out of the other's sword range and only needed to take one step forward to attack.

He slowed his pace,

Changing to a parry posture with higher safety, wandering and looking for opportunities.

But unexpectedly, the adventurer skeleton, which had a quite shocking appearance and seemed to bring its own BGM,

Reacted half a beat slower.

As if it hadn't adapted to the environment in the Material Plane, when Xia Nan had already left the front and wandered to the side.

It then, as if delayed, slashed the rusty sword in its hand toward the air before it.

"Bang!"

The cracked blade embedded fiercely into the mud.

It didn't break.

But the counter-shock force brought by this made the skeletal arm tightly gripping the hilt tremble violently.

Xia Nan could even clearly see the bone fragments falling from the surface of the other's ulna.

The sharp eyes, originally highly concentrated due to the battle, suddenly became strange.

But the movements didn't stop.

Combat instinct made him instinctively seize the opportunity of the other's attack.

His right arm bent to accumulate force, and his left foot stepped forward suddenly.

【Spinning Slash】!

Buzz—

Stirring the water mist, the black-brown wooden sword turned into a sharp arc of light.

The scorching and bright flame light flashed across the air.

The seemingly thick and powerful pale bones, under the sword blade flashing with fire light.

Had no defense at all.

Just like paper, it was instantly cracked and severed.

It was so smooth and clean that Xia Nan didn't even react himself.

In the next second, the skeleton was slashed at the waist by him, like a broken toy, falling to the ground.

"Ah? Just this?"

Looking at the half-skeleton before him, like a turtle flipped over, unable to turn around, only able to wave its sword wildly face down on the ground.

Xia Nan suddenly felt that he might have been too cautious just now.

It was also reasonable.

The 【Spinning Slash】 practiced to the full level of lv5 made his actual combat ability already exceed that of ordinary bottom-level adventurers;

And the damage bonus of the blue-quality wooden sword in his hand against undead creatures, when facing undead of the level of Tim and the skeleton cannon fodder before him, was almost like a super-model existence.

Touching it meant injury, and hitting a vital point meant death.

One sword per one, faster than cutting vegetables.

He casually made a supplementary strike, splitting the adventurer skeleton's head in two.

Then he severed its right arm holding the single-handed sword, seeing that the other seemed to have died completely and was no longer moving.

Xia Nan then retreated a few steps, his gaze looking to the other side of the battlefield.

The lute music that had been ringing in the air had stopped at some point.

For the Halfling's small body, the slightly heavy lute lay quietly on the ground.

Most schools of "Bard," before obtaining professional levels, and even those who were far from the professional boundary and had weak spellcasting abilities,

Could rarely support a complete battle alone purely by relying on musical instruments.

They often needed the help of teammates and would carry handy weapons with them.

When necessary, they would go into battle themselves like assassins and warriors.

Alton, as a Lightfoot Halfling, would travel to every corner of the Aifala continent for the rest of his life, and naturally possessed a set of decent combat abilities.

Only seeing him holding two exquisite mini scimitars, flexibly shuttling beneath the skeletons.

The agile and small figure like a weasel made those slow and stiff bone frames unable to capture him at all.

Often just after taking a few steps forward, they were slashed off their leg bones and fell to the ground in a panic.

At the same time, Ingram, the sheriff of Kalanfur.

Also finally showed his combat power before Xia Nan for the first time.

"Buzz-bang!"

The single-handed hammer, flickering with golden light, smashed fiercely onto a skeleton's forehead.

Just like a micro-explosive, the hammer surface suddenly flashed with golden light.

Looking over again, half of the skeleton's head had disappeared.

The holy light, which was also extremely lethal to undead creatures, made the sheriff's enemy-killing speed not much worse than Xia Nan, who possessed the wooden sword 【Green Pine】.

Often with one hammer down, the bone frame before him lost its combat ability.

After neatly making a supplementary hammer, it died completely.

His fighting style was as tough as his sturdy and strong body.

He basically didn't dodge, rushing into the skeleton pile and smashing around.

And even if a skeleton got close, it could only scratch a few shallow white marks on the surface of the light plate armor on his body.

Xia Nan felt envious in his heart.

"This set of standard equipment should be issued by the official, right? No need to spend money yourself."

"Maybe even the maintenance fee can be reimbursed."

Tsk.

I wonder if River Valley Town is still short of a sheriff.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 75 =====