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"Hahahaha! Just as they say, 'There's always an antidote within three steps'—it really is true!"
Gu Su swung the Plague Cutter, his knuckles whitening slightly from the force of his grip. His hearty, unrestrained laughter rang through the vast, silent supermarket.
The Skeleton Servants used their gaunt but astonishingly strong bony claws to hold up the heavy door, while the Plague Cutter's uniquely frigid edge cut through the obstruction.
Gu Su carved a jagged opening straight through the storeroom door,
After a rush of air carrying an intense stench of decay burst out from behind it, Gu Su finally saw the inside of the freezer storeroom—and let out that exclamation of surprise.
A bizarre stench hit him as soon as he stepped inside, a mixture of mold, sour blood, and rotting fat. An ordinary person would have gagged on the spot after taking a single breath.
The moment he entered, his feet met a sticky, slippery surface. The floor was covered in dark, nearly black stains formed by wastewater mingled with corpse oil.
They clung to the concrete like a solidified swamp, making a faint squelching sound whenever someone stepped on them.
A thick, sticky layer of milky-white grease floated atop the blackish-brown sludge. It looked like butter that had melted and cooled, yet gave off a nauseating, rancid stench.
A few scattered animal bones were embedded in the cracks in the sludge, their surfaces a ghastly white. Countless tiny, disorderly claw marks covered the layer of white grease, varying in depth. They were clearly the tracks left by long-haired rats that had scurried about and foraged here for a long time.
As a mage specializing in Necromancy, Gu Su understood the whole story at a glance.
This was clearly the result of large quantities of fresh meat that had originally been stored in the storeroom, left to rot and ferment rapidly in the airtight space after the cooling system failed and the power went out.
The combination of time and environment had turned this place into a natural vessel for decomposition.
Gu Su looked toward the back of the storeroom and made a rough estimate.
Countless tons of pork, beef, and mutton; poultry like chickens and ducks; all kinds of sea fish and shellfish; large blocks of butter and cream; and mountains of frozen fruit had all been trapped in this confined space.
In the darkness and sealed confines, they had undergone cycles of rotting, decomposition, and fermentation day after day.
First, they had turned into murky, foul-smelling wastewater, settling together with the dust and debris piled in the corners of the storeroom.
Then, because the underground drainage system had long since become clogged and rusted, leaving nowhere for the liquid to flow, it had eventually congealed over the years into the filthy yet energy-rich mess before him.
The tiny holes that the long-haired rats had dug into the storeroom walls had brought no life to this place.
Instead, they had become channels for air to circulate, adding a touch of "special vitality" to this dead, filthy place.
It wasn't the vibrant vitality of living creatures, but rather cracks through which the power of decay could spread, seep, and settle further.
This made the energy of decomposition here purer and more concentrated. Tiny mold spores drifted through the air, dancing like dust in the faint light. Every speck contained pure power of corruption.
When Gu Su's gaze settled on the patch of grayish-white mold spreading across the layer of white grease, his eyes suddenly lit up, and his heartbeat quickened.
He hurried over and crouched down, carefully bringing a fingertip close to the mold. Feeling the familiar energy it contained, he already knew what he had found.
The Corruption Mycelium needed for the core material of the [Repair Quest: Desolate Land] had unexpectedly turned up here, in a perfect natural source—and there was far more of it than he had expected!
Who said a freezer storeroom could only be used to preserve food and couldn't become a natural vessel for nurturing the power of decomposition?
And who dared say that spoiled, rotten meat was useless and couldn't become a rare material worth its weight in gold for Necromancy?
What lay before him was a miracle born of the symbiosis between natural law and the power of decay, a treasure that had emerged from desperation—and it was exactly what he urgently needed.
After laughing, Gu Su gently touched the grayish-white mold with his fingertip. Feeling the pure energy of corruption flow into him, he had already worked out what to do.
All he had to do was gather every last bit of Corruption Mycelium here, seal it up, and take it back to the Graveyard Demon Grounds. Then the [Repair Quest: Desolate Land] would be taken care of.
He stood up and turned to the Skeleton Servants waiting behind him, issuing orders in a voice brimming with barely contained excitement. "Come over here, all of you. Be careful! The spellcasting skeletons, guard the entrance and watch out for enemy ambushes. The rest of you, split up and find every container you can. Carefully gather this grayish-white mycelium first. Don't waste a single bit!
"Once you've collected it all, we'll deal with the sludge. Be careful with it—it's all treasure!"
The skeletons immediately sprang into action. The clacking of their joints echoed softly through the storeroom, but there was no disorder in their movements.
The spellcasting skeletons quickly retreated to the entrance, gripping their long wooden staffs and tensing their bodies as their empty eye sockets swept over the corridor.
Two burly skeletons headed deeper into the storeroom and dug out a plastic bucket of unknown age, preparing to bring it over for the white mycelium.
The rest crouched beside the sludge. They restrained their usual brute strength, gently scraping up the grayish-white mycelium with the slender joints of their fingertips, carefully gathering it in their palms before transferring it bit by bit into the plastic bucket.
When they found mycelium embedded in cracks, they slowly teased it out with the tips of their bony claws, afraid that too much force might break it and waste the precious material of decomposition.
Once all the Corruption Mycelium had been gathered and divided among containers, Gu Su found some things to seal each one tightly.
He personally carried them outside the freezer storeroom and arranged them in a dry area. This would keep the mycelium from being contaminated by the filth inside and prevent its energy from dissipating, ensuring it would work properly later.
With the core mycelium taken care of, the skeletons no longer needed to restrain themselves, and gradually began using more force.
They bent down and vigorously scooped up the sticky sludge and corpse oil with their bony claws, gathering the substances, which were rich in the power of decay, into a small blackish-brown mound in the center of the storeroom.
Once they had finished piling it up, the skeletons stopped and turned their empty eye sockets toward Gu Su, their joints swaying slightly. They were clearly unsure what to use to carry it.
Gu Su hurriedly looked around the storeroom too. His gaze swept over toppled shelves, broken boards, and rusted containers, but he couldn't find anything large enough to haul the stuff.
After a moment's thought, he pointed at two agile skeletons and ordered in a low voice, "You two, go look around the supermarket floor and the area around the storeroom. Find some large, intact wooden boards and bring them here. Pile all this sludge and corpse oil onto the boards, and we'll transport it in batches later."
The two skeletons immediately bowed in acknowledgment, then turned and hurried out of the storeroom, following their earlier route to search for boards.
The spellcasting skeletons continued guarding the entrance, while the rest waited beside the mound of sludge and corpse oil, careful not to accidentally scatter the pile of filth.
Just then, Gu Su thought of the skeletons he had sent to search the store for treasures earlier. He wondered how they were doing now.
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