Chapter 44 "Hey! (Pointing upward)"

From the vitality of soul fire, it is very easy to tell whether an undead is active or dormant.

Li Rui had seen and killed active undead. The soul fire inside their skulls resembled two small, intensely burning fireballs, and as they moved, tiny green sparks would occasionally burst from their hollow eye sockets.

As for all the undead present before him, they were clearly in a dormant state.

In the [Undead Vision], Li Rui could see pairs of light points resembling eyes, looking just like dying sparks, frozen motionless everywhere.

Looking at that expanse of soul fire before him, which resembled a starry sky, a sudden thought occurred to him.

The [Soul Fire] trait would transform him into a living-type undead; if so, would these undead before him still attack him after his transformation?

However, there was no material available right now for him to test this hypothesis, so he had to temporarily shelve the idea.

He unequipped the [Soul Fire] trait, stepped back a few paces, and turned to wave gently at his teammates.

His teammates understood immediately, following him out of the cavern and stopping just outside the tunnel dug by the miners.

Seeing his gesture instructing everyone to retreat, Paul guessed something and asked, "Is the situation very bad?"

"Somewhat," Li Rui nodded. "Do you think we can handle about fifty or sixty undead?"

"That many?" Paul clicked his tongue, glanced at Li Rui and Millie, and then looked back at the tunnel leading to the cavern. "I don't think we can take them."

Although they could fight while bottlenecking the tunnel, if the undead squeezed through all at once, charging blindly forward regardless of trampling each other, the five of them would eventually be surrounded by a tide of rushing undead.

While being surrounded did not necessarily mean certain death, the problem was: who knew if there were any experts among the undead?

These were not mere slimes or goblins.

The Adventurer Guild's monster compendium explicitly stated that undead might retain some skills from their lifetimes. If there were individuals with superior combat techniques among this group, or if any warlocks and mages had turned into undead after death...

Then the five of them would be in deep trouble.

After a moment of silence among the group, Li Rui suddenly spoke up, "I have an idea..."

………………

A short while later.

"Like this? Will it work?"

Millie held her bow and arrow, standing about one hundred meters away from the cavern entrance.

The arrowhead had been removed from the shaft in her hand, replaced by a makeshift three-pronged hook crafted from fine iron wire, and a thin hemp rope was tied to the end of the arrow.

Squatting near her feet, Li Rui equipped the [Soul Fire] trait upon hearing this and peered inside the cavern.

In the process of using the [Soul Fire] trait, he gradually discovered something.

That was—the vision of the undead is limited.

If he equipped the [Soul Fire] trait and then closed his eyes, relying solely on the [Undead Vision] attached to the [Soul Fire] to examine things before him, what he would see was a black-and-white image outlined only by lines.

In this image, he could only discern the shapes of objects when they moved, rather than mistaking the boundaries of obstacles for the ground or cracks in the wall.

More importantly, the viewing range of [Undead Vision] was a mere two hundred meters!

Li Rui guessed this was because the intensity of his own soul fire was not high enough. If the intensity increased, perhaps he would be able to see even further.

But in the current environment, it was enough.

Upon equipping [Soul Fire], Li Rui immediately spotted two dim points of soul fire inside the cavern.

And there were only those two.

As for those located further away, Li Rui could not see them for now.

"Right here," he unequipped [Soul Fire] and gave Millie a thumbs-up. "Shoot."

"Okay."

Millie briskly notched the arrow to the string, pulled the bow, and released.

"Whoosh!"

The arrow streaked through the air, crossing the mining tunnel, passing the cavern entrance carved out by miners, flying another hundred meters deep into the cavern, and finally, the iron wire three-pronged hook collided next to a pile of bones, making a faint metallic clinking sound.

The undead showed no reaction at all.

Having suffered no attacks or abnormal touches, it remained in its dormant state.

"Millie, retreat to Paul and the others first."

"Got it."

Millie turned and walked a dozen meters backward.

"Will this actually be useful?" The barbarian Galon scratched his heavy beard and asked doubtfully, "The monster compendium says that when undead wake up, they all emit soul fluctuations, waking up every other undead around them... He hooks it with a hook, and that single undead won't wake up the others?"

Of course, Li Rui was not just hooking it once; he was testing the waters right now.

He pulled the hemp rope tied to the tail of the arrow. The moment the hemp rope tautened and clearly made contact with the pile of bones ahead in his line of sight, he immediately equipped the [Soul Fire] trait.

"Clatter..."

Following the abnormal touch, the two spark-like points of soul fire in the undead's eye sockets swelled abruptly, turning into a pair of small fireballs constantly spitting tiny green sparks.

Yet when it controlled its skeletal body to stand up and looked around, it found no living creatures whatsoever.

It only saw a somewhat strange "compatriot" at the edge of its vision.

"?"

A question mark popped up within the undead's soul fire, and then it couldn't help walking toward that strangely familiar compatriot.

"Fall back, fall back, fall back!"

Seeing the undead approach, Li Rui shouted excitedly to those behind him, "Lured one! You guys hurry back and don't let it spot you!"

After telling his teammates to fall back, Li Rui also kept an eye on the undead's pace, retreating step-by-step as the undead advanced, ensuring he remained within the undead's field of vision at all times.

After backing up for about two hundred meters like this, he stopped.

The luring plan had succeeded, and next, he wanted to test a previous hypothesis of his.

The [Soul Fire] trait would transform him into a living-type undead; if so, would these undead before him still attack him after his transformation?

In the wide main mining tunnel, he had his teammates stand about ten meters behind him, and then quietly waited for the undead to arrive.

Once the members of the "Claw of the Earth" squad stopped, the undead immediately spotted the four living entities standing behind its "compatriot."

"Hum!"

Its soul fire swelled suddenly, and a large number of green sparks shot out from its eye sockets, which had already turned into bare bone.

At the same time, Li Rui, who had not unequipped [Soul Fire], suddenly sensed a spiritual fluctuation.

That spiritual fluctuation rippled outward from the undead like water waves, carrying a single message within it.

*Food!*

Immediately afterward, it raised the long sword it had grasped the moment it woke up and charged toward the "food" before it.

Watching the charging undead, everyone's heart tightened involuntarily.

Li Rui braced his halberd, pressing the butt of the shaft against the ground, half-crouched himself, and aimed the blade directly at the undead.

Then, everyone witnessed it.

The undead rushed right up to Li Rui, its stride veering off to the side. It completely ignored him and charged straight toward Paul and the others instead!