Unas led the party through the tunnel lined with glowing moss and back into a stone chamber with passages leading in every direction. This time, though, he didn't have to choose.
One of the openings had been barred with an iron gate. Judging by the bloodstained chains and the rotten stench wafting out of the passage, it most likely led to the demon's prison.
"Prepare for battle. There may still be guards in this prison," Hans called out.
Unas thought that made sense. He hurriedly buffed everyone, then took the lead, smashing the iron chain on the gate to pieces with his hammer before kicking the gate open.
The rumbling echoed through the tunnel. Unas motioned for everyone to be quiet and listened carefully, but there was no response from the other end.
Either there were no enemies, or they were already prepared.
Unas grew more cautious. He took a shield he had picked up from his bag and held it in front of him as he slowly passed through the gate. The soldiers followed slowly behind him.
Before long, several red dots appeared on the minimap in his mind. They weren't ahead of him, though, but at the edge of the map, behind him to the left.
Level-one Sense Undead only had a radius of a hundred meters. There might be more enemies beyond its range.
He stopped at once. Surely this tunnel couldn't make a U-turn and lead back behind them. That would make no sense.
The red dots had appeared behind them to the left, so they were probably in another tunnel.
"Everyone, turn around and return to the stone chamber!" Unas's command echoed through the tunnel.
The party quickly retreated to the stone chamber. Faced with everyone's questioning looks, Unas didn't explain much. Instead, he silently spent the skill point he had gained from his last level-up, raising Sense Undead to Lv2.
The skill had saved him many times. Although it was limited to detecting Undead, the enemies they faced now were Undead. The lives of the entire party rested on him, and he had to find out where the enemies were.
The minimap in his mind didn't grow larger, but his detection range instantly tripled. With the green dot representing Unas at the center of a sphere, all Undead within a three-hundred-meter radius would be marked on the three-dimensional minimap.
Unas saw a large cluster of red dots in the direction of the opening on the left. A quick count put them at around seventy or eighty. There were also some red dots at the edge of the map in the direction of the iron gate, though far fewer.
There were about a hundred Undead in all. If they were all low-level Skeleton Soldiers, his squad of over twenty could handle them. But Undead forces generally fought with a mix of troop types. If Zombies and Ghouls made up too large a proportion, they would be in for a hard fight.
The situation was grave. Unas looked around and suddenly spotted a pile of bagged earth and rocks in the center of the chamber. An idea struck him: block the passage.
He ran over and began storing the bags of earth and rocks in his backpack as he explained to the soldiers, "I sense a lot of enemies in the passage on the left. Everyone, hurry and help me block the opening."
The soldiers stared dumbfounded as the bags vanished from their temporary captain's hands. Only those with some knowledge realized it was the work of a spatial container.
Unas quickly cleared away the whole pile. The spatial bag had sixty-four slots, most of which were empty apart from a few miscellaneous items. There was more than enough room left after he packed away the rocks.
He ran to the opening on the left and started throwing the bags of rocks into it. "Everyone, come help stack these rocks!"
The others were still standing there in a daze when Stonebrow raised his thick gray eyebrows and ran over on his short little legs. "Stacking rocks is my specialty!"
"You're the brick expert. Take charge and make sure this opening is completely sealed." It felt good to have someone respond the moment he called. Unas was starting to like the guy.
"I guarantee I'll get the job done," Stonebrow said loudly, pounding his chest.
Unas divided his men into two groups: one kept watch, while the other stacked rocks under Stonebrow's direction.
By then, the enemies seemed to have noticed what they were doing. A line of red dots broke away from the cluster on the minimap and advanced toward them.
"Hurry, we only have thirty seconds!" Unas was frantic, wishing he could throw all the rocks out at once.
In fact, Unas had overestimated the Undead's speed. Although the clattering of bones was already close at hand, the enemies ultimately failed to make it in time.
A tall stone wall completely blocked the opening. Judging by its thickness, it would hold for a while and wouldn't be immediately pulled apart by the enemies.
After thirty seconds of all-out effort, the soldiers lay exhausted across the floor. But this was no time to rest. The pounding from the other side of the stone wall put everyone on edge.
"Everyone, get up and prepare to move!" Unas raised his silver hammer and shouted to rally them. "Come with me and destroy the pile of bones on the other side!"
"Yes!" the soldiers shouted back. Unas's actions had won him his men's trust, and they followed him without hesitation as he charged through the iron gate again.
Allen was rather furious. He had divided his Undead forces in two, hiding most of them elsewhere in preparation for a pincer attack. He hadn't expected the enemies to avoid the trap entirely.
Now his main force was blocked off, and the enemies were advancing rapidly. Things looked bad, but fortunately he had left himself a way out.
The two sides clashed in his "kitchen." Through his subordinates' eyes, he saw the enemy party. Leading them was a young man holding a silver hammer aloft, his whole body radiating white light.
So it was a Paladin. No wonder his scheme had been seen through. He knew that some Paladin spells were highly effective against Undead; Paladins could be called the bane of the Undead.
With enemies having made it this far, the demon master's situation was easy to imagine. It hesitated no longer and slipped deeper underground.
Unas swung his silver hammer freely, using all his skills and killing to his heart's content. He regained the confidence he had lost against the Felguard from these skeletons and Zombies.
Bessarius had probably sent all the elite Undead under its command to ambush them at the lake, leaving only cannon fodder in the cave. They quickly wiped out this small group of enemies. Unas didn't know whether it was an illusion, but he felt much stronger than when he had first transmigrated here, only a few days ago.
He surveyed the room. It was clearly a torture chamber, filled with all manner of bizarre instruments. A **** corpse lay on a torture table, the horrifying wounds covering her body revealing the torment she had suffered in life. Bones and scraps of flesh were piled in a corner, and a powerful stench of blood filled the room.
Unas did his best to imagine everything before him as a cartoon to keep himself from throwing up on the spot. Judging by the remains, they shouldn't be far from the demon's prisoners.
Just then, a soldier suddenly cried out, apparently having found something. Unas hurried over and saw that a wooden board in the floor had been lifted, exposing an opening barred by an iron grate.
A dungeon. The women and children were most likely being held below.
Unas swung his hammer and smashed another iron lock, then lifted the grate and led the way down the steps into the dungeon.
The dungeon was pitch-dark, and far too quiet.
Unas felt he must have made a mistake. How could there be anyone here?
As more and more soldiers came down, their torches lit the place thoroughly.
The dungeon was surprisingly spacious. Rows of iron cages stood either empty or packed with people. The prisoners inside watched the soldiers walk past, but no one made a sound. There were no cheers, no screams, not even whispers—only pairs of eyes reflecting the torchlight, their gazes empty and despairing.
Negative emotions really could spread. Unas walked slowly down the narrow passage between the two rows of cages, looking at their despairing eyes. He suddenly felt terrible, as though something had caught in his throat.
Then a clear voice suddenly rang out, dispelling the heaviness in his chest.
"Luogeluomaxiduo! You finally came!"