Battle with the Ram-headed Laborers

"The Wasteland wasn't a place many dared to wander without some skill." The Ram-headed People chief smiled casually.

"What skill could I have? I'm just driven by copper coins, born to toil!" Li Ziran replied absentmindedly from atop a big-horned ram.

"Wizards make a lot of money, don't they?" the Ram-headed People chief asked kindly. "I heard you earn more in a day than my entire tribe does."

Li Ziran nodded. "That's only natural. But great wizards can earn that much. A handyman like me probably makes less than even your errand-runners." He sighed softly. "Hard life."

Seeing that he could not get any particularly useful information, the Ram-headed People chief changed the subject. "Low-grade Healing Potions are rare. Can you brew them, sir?"

"No, but I know someone who can." Li Ziran neither confirmed nor denied anything. There was no need to be overly polite to someone he had met by chance halfway down the road. "In the Gray Wolf Territory we passed earlier, there's a wandering bard. Those potions are his specialty. He loves drinking, and he usually takes out three to five bottles a day to trade for drinking money."

"Really?" The Ram-headed People chief's eyes widened. Clearly, this was extremely useful news.

The news was naturally true. It was not especially valuable information, but letting it slip from time to time often earned him some goodwill.

"Probably. But they aren't cheap. You know the value of those potions too. I only wanted to see if I could hitch a ride with the caravan and buy a bottle. After all, it's solid currency!" Li Ziran said as he surveyed the Wasteland scenery.

The night was already deep and hazy. A breeze carried by the Elemental Tide brushed across everyone's faces.

The two chatted idly like this. The Ram-headed People chief kept asking questions without pause, while Li Ziran answered with casual nonsense out of politeness.

As the caravan moved onward, the sky gradually brightened. By the light of dawn, Li Ziran could see that the ground beneath his feet was no longer the Wasteland's red sand, but cracked earth like shattered roof tiles.

Apparently, this place had been a pond rich in water just a few hours ago.

That was the Wasteland's terrifying power. No matter how abundant the water source, it could wipe it out completely in less than half a day.

Li Ziran took a deep breath. Amid the dryness was a trace of scorching, fiery stench.

A rain of fire must have fallen here not long ago. Fire elements from the Elemental Tide had gathered in high density, forming fireballs that dropped from the sky.

But the air gave Li Ziran another piece of information: the swamp was still some distance away, so he could relax and keep chatting for a while.

A rare trace of black soil gradually appeared amid the cracked ground. Several tender green blades of grass could clearly be seen swaying in the Wasteland's fierce winds, and the air rushing toward them was no longer as dry as before.

This abnormal grass could not survive. Within a few moments, it would surely wither and become fertilizer for the Wasteland.

The Ram-headed People chief spoke less. The swamp was not far away, yet this flock had not kept its earlier promise to steer clear of it. Instead, they were actively heading toward it.

The grass became thicker, and thin trickles like strands of hair could vaguely be seen between the blades.

This was terrain entirely different from the Wasteland's, but it would vanish in an instant. These trickles and grass would disappear completely within a few hours.

But he finally saw a pond, with spear grass as tall as a person growing all around it.

"Li, we've reached the destination!" the Goathead Chief said with a smile, but he showed no intention of leaving.

Li Ziran naturally understood. Years of scraping by had given him the nose to sense trouble.

It was not easy to meet a wizard in the Wasteland. On the other hand, if they encountered one, getting hired by a Witch Doctor was far better than running to some territory to earn money as laborers.

The key was that the risk was low.

Even if the Witch Doctor did not hire them, it did not prevent them from lingering around. Sometimes, they still liked to play bandits.

In such desolate, lawless wilderness, this sort of business was most fitting.

Clearly, this group of Ram-headed People had chosen the latter.

Li Ziran had experienced this more than once. Looking at the ram chief who refused to leave, he asked calmly, "Thank you for giving me a ride this far, but I don't have anything else on hand to thank you with."

"Li, you're overthinking it. This is entirely a gift. But if you can provide another Healing Potion, I think this place will definitely be safe." The Goathead Chief spoke gently, but the Ram-headed People in the distance had already drawn the curved blades hidden among their horns. The last moonlight before dawn shone over them, reflecting a gloomy, cold gleam.

Li Ziran took a step back. His fingers slowly slipped to his waist and gripped the thin red cord. His smile was even kinder than the Ram-headed People's. "I'm telling the truth. You can ask around in the Gray Wolf Territory!"

"Oh, it seems we can't reach an agreement." The smile vanished from the ram chief's face, replaced by sudden coldness. Two enormous rams behind him drew their gleaming curved blades and closed in on Li Ziran from both sides.

"Don't, Chief. Let's part on good terms!" Li Ziran hurriedly backed away. The red cord at his belt silently snapped, and two frogs dropped into the mud.

The instant the two Ram-headed People approached, the motionless sludge suddenly writhed. Before they could reach Li Ziran, a bony claw burst from the mud and locked around one Ram-headed Person's leg bone.

Glug!

Half a ram leg sank straight into the sludge.

[Undead Art: Bone Claw]

The sudden change was beyond the Ram-headed People's expectations. Four gleaming curved blades stabbed into the mud, but instead of the crimson blood they had expected, another bone claw appeared and seized the blades in its hand.

Crack!

The curved blades shattered instantly. The slender bone claw followed the broken hilts, grabbed their owners' palms, and dragged their entire bodies into the sludge with overwhelming force.

All of this happened within the span of a breath. The heads of the first two Ram-headed People were buried in the mud, their hind legs kicking frantically as they bleated in panic.

"That's... undead magic!"

A Ram-headed Person in the distance recognized it and cried out in alarm.

The instant the word "undead" was spoken, the other Ram-headed People visibly changed expression. Their tightening encirclement froze. As for the two buried in the sludge, their struggles grew weaker and weaker until they stopped moving completely. Yet from beginning to end, no one dared step forward to pull them out.

Necromancers were infamous not only in human lands. In the unrestrained Wasteland, they were even more terrifying.

Plagues and undead magic were the nightmares of every living thing in the Wasteland.

Though it was only an ordinary Bone Claw, it was enough to frighten this band of relatively tame robbers.

"What are you afraid of? He's alone! Everyone, attack! Necromancers are richer than wizards!" The Goathead Chief hardened his heart and removed the curved blade from his head. "Even if we let him go, the Necromancer won't let us go!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he charged forward with his curved blade raised. Seeing their chief's ferocity, the Ram-headed People behind him cast aside their fear and rushed forward as well.

"Damn it!"

Li Ziran kept retreating. What he feared most were madmen who did not value their lives.

At the same time, every red cord tied around his waist was cut. Each time a frog hit the ground, a bony hand rose from the earth and entangled a Ram-headed Person.

That red cord was his treasure, woven from the hair of dead people and infused with a Necromancer's magic. The instant it was cut, the Necromantic Power gathered within could directly transform corpses into Skeletons capable of fighting.

Under normal circumstances, he would not need to worry about encountering thirty or fifty Ram-headed People. But now, he had only collected thirteen corpses.

That meant only thirteen Skeletons could hold them off. Given the Skeletons' frail combat strength, surviving this Ram-headed People encirclement would be difficult.

The panic caused by the Bone Claws did not last long before the Goathead Chief's curved blade flipped a Skeleton hidden in the mud into the air.

Slash!

After a flash of cold light, the Pigman Skeleton was cut into three pieces.

Though the Skeletons still desperately tried to block the enemies before them, they were nothing more than paper puppets before the Goathead Chief at the peak of his strength.

"Chief, I can give you another potion!" Li Ziran said rapidly as he retreated.

But those words were like a match tossed into an oil barrel, making the already wildly excited Ram-headed People even more excited. Each of them seemed as though they had drunk a Berserk Potion, accelerating as they closed in on Li Ziran.

"Oh? Fine, give me the potion first!" Though the Goathead Chief said this, his pace only increased.

The instant the fight began, they had already decided that Li Ziran was a fat sheep.

Li Ziran retreated quickly. He knew his situation clearly. Forget this flock—if he were the chief, he too would swallow the prey without holding back.

He had said those words deliberately. He wanted these people to become even more frenzied.

Swamp water splashed everywhere. Li Ziran stumbled through the sludge, sometimes sinking so deeply that the mud dragged down his entire lower body.

That miserable sight made the Ram-headed People feel even more certain that their prey was within reach. With the beastfolk's perfect balance, they repeatedly leaped forward to close the distance between them.

"He can't run anymore! Brothers, put some effort into it! I guarantee this brat has good things on him!" The Goathead Chief laughed loudly. The Ram-headed People behind him grew increasingly excited, their steps becoming ever swifter.

But they failed to notice that although Li Ziran was constantly retreating, he had not taken a single step into the deeper swamp. If they looked carefully, they would discover that Li Ziran had been circling the area all along.

At that moment, a faint, hazy green glow began to rise beneath the murky water covering the shallow swamp.

When the green light reached their calves, the rapidly retreating Li Ziran suddenly stopped. He swiftly pulled out his staff and lightly pointed it at the Goathead Chief charging at the front.

[Shapeshifting Curse: Frog]

This swamp had produced a strange magic. The eerie green light wrapped around the Goathead Chief, forming an oily green membrane. Within it, he began shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.