The Scourge of the Undead: Starting with Building Monster Farms

Chapter 35 The Foreign Adventurers

Vinork is the town closest to the Dark Forest.

Because of its proximity to a dark forest, the days here are exceptionally short, and the town's residents seize every moment of light to work and get busy.

"Ugh, this place is disgusting. It's dark, damp, and sticky."

"I really regret agreeing to come here and take on this mission."

"Staying in this awful place for too long is making my beautiful skin look terrible."

A four-person adventurer party walks through the streets of Vinork.

At the front of the group, a woman with long brown hair and a cat tail trailing behind her kept complaining about her surroundings and the troubles of the trip.

"Stop complaining, Sophia. I don't know who saw the bounty notice, rushed to accept the mission, and then came to persuade us to come along."

"You've only been at the mission location a few days and you can't stand it anymore? Don't you want the payment for this job?"

The second person in the procession was a middle-aged man clad in armor and carrying a greatsword. He held his helmet in his right hand and always had a smile on his face when he spoke.

"I never imagined the mission location would be in such a harsh environment."

"Those damned undead and necromancers really know how to pick a place. I really don't understand how the residents here can tolerate living in a place like this for so long."

Sophia pouted, and her cat ears drooped listlessly, clearly disgusted by her surroundings.

"Although the area around the Dark Forest is harsh and often harassed by undead creatures and necromancers, it is precisely because of these guys that Vinork has a large output of soul crystals."

"Local residents and the kingdom's high-ranking officials also amassed a great deal of wealth through this."

The bespectacled young man following behind the middle-aged man answered Sophia's question.

He held an ancient book with a leather cover in his hands, and his entire attire exuded a scholarly and wise aura.

To outsiders, he might be mistaken for a mage in an adventurer's party. But that's not the case; the bespectacled youth actually serves as the party's priest.

"Residents? Wealth? These two words are completely unrelated."

"All the wealth is in the hands of those high-ranking officials, and ordinary people can barely make ends meet."

"Only by becoming adventurers like us and working tirelessly to complete missions can we avoid worrying about food and clothing."

Sofia rested her hands behind her head, and her tone became subdued when the topic came up.

She, the middle-aged man, and the bespectacled youth are all adventurers from humble backgrounds who have lived a life of constant danger and struggle to get to where they are today.

"Raphael, what do you think our chances of success are this time?" the middle-aged man asked the bespectacled young man beside him.

"Captain, you've asked me this question many times these past few days."

The bespectacled young man, known as Raphael, adjusted his glasses, a helpless expression on his face. But he also knew that as the squad leader, this worry was a responsibility.

Raphael coughed twice, his helpless expression vanishing, and his tone became serious as he earnestly explained the conclusions he had repeatedly deduced and analyzed to the middle-aged captain.

"Our mission this time is to delve into the Dark Forest, search for a newly born lich, gather relevant information about it, and then compile it and submit it to our employer."

"The Dark Forest is vast, and liches are not uncommon here."

"Without the exact location, the chances of completing this task would be extremely low, but fortunately, the employer gave us a general coordinate. As long as we follow the coordinate, we can roughly find the lich's location."

"Putting that problem aside for now, the only thing we need to worry about is our own safety."

"The Dark Forest is home to many powerful undead creatures, as well as formidable necromancers."

"The area we need to infiltrate is located deep in the middle of the dark forest, and the god I worship does not have the divine power to restrain the dead."

"With the three of us, protecting ourselves shouldn't be a big problem, but completing the entrusted mission will still be quite difficult."

Before Raphael could finish speaking, the middle-aged captain interrupted him.

"The good thing is, besides the three of us, our team also has a powerful weapon against undead creatures!"

"As long as Thorin is here, those undead creatures pose no threat whatsoever."

"When searching for that lich, we just need to be careful not to be targeted by other necromancers."

As he said this, the middle-aged man focused his gaze on the last person in their group.

She was a petite woman with long, flowing golden hair adorned with a star-shaped hair clip.

The staff in her hand was far more ornate and exquisite than the equipment of her three teammates; it was something they had put together for her.

"Old Luke is toying with people again. He knows everything perfectly well, but he just makes Raphael repeat it to him over and over again."

Sofia complained about the middle-aged man, but a faint smile remained on her lips.

It's clear that she enjoys the relaxed team atmosphere she's in right now.

"Thorin will do his best to help everyone," the blonde girl said, gripping her staff tightly and revealing a gentle smile.

Although she has only been with the team for a short time, she already has complete trust in the three of them.

"We've arrived. This should be the gathering place for adventurers in this area," Captain Luke said, pointing to a building ahead.

"Great, another tavern! I love these adventurers who gather at taverns!"

The sign for the Gray Mist Tavern came into view, and Sophia stretched out her body, already eager to enter the tavern.

The group entered the tavern. Sofia, Raphael, and Thorin found an empty seat and sat down, while old Luke went to the counter alone to take orders and settle the bill.

Old Luke took three white crystals out of his pocket and gently placed them on the front desk.

This is the local currency of Vinork, which is more widely circulated and recognized, and is far more useful than the kingdom's official currency.

Its name is the Soul Crystal that the team mentioned earlier, also known as the Soul Crystal.

Old Luke's meal only cost two Soul Crystals; the remaining one was paid to the front desk as a fee for intelligence gathering.

To find out which paths are safe and which are dangerous in the middle of the Dark Forest, one can only ask the adventurers who reside there.

Some adventurers even know roughly which necromancer or powerful undead creature governs different parts of the Dark Forest.

This information was extremely important to their team as they were about to enter the Dark Forest.

Thanks to Luke's consistently reliable intelligence gathering, the other three members of the team chatted in peace.

"By the way, Thorin, that story you told me last time was very interesting. Could you tell it to me again?"