The Ugliest Man in the Province
The witch died and became a witch zombie. Just as expected, she retained her ability to hurl fireballs even after turning. More precisely, her capacity to channel mana and cast spells had been inherited and preserved. Among the spells she could use, the most useful one wasn't launching fire at all. It was Fly, the magic that lifted her body into the air. Though it consumed a great deal of mana and wasn't particularly fast, the spell proved incredibly versatile. Its most notable application was operating the palanquin. Clearing native creatures didn't require crossing walls, but securing the Fruit of Good and Evil demanded straight-line travel. The witch's Fly made crossing those walls with the palanquin far easier. You could even say my golden-spoon life of gathering the fruits began with her.
"Witch. Did you rest well?"
"Yes..."
The witch had been intelligent in life, so she could speak almost immediately after becoming a zombie. However, years of living alone had left her with the habit of trailing off at the end of her sentences. Every fruit related to mana went to her. Since she was the only mana-wielding zombie I had, giving them to her was the best investment possible.
"Here. Eat another one."
I handed her a fruit that resembled a grapefruit.
"Thank you..."
Crunch— Crunch—
While she ate, I stretched and waited. This relic toss would be done together with the witch. Two relics remained. If we cleared up to 4-4, that would leave three. The next destination was Avoid the Kiss. The bizarre name wasn't my fault. Zone names were always given by the first discoverer, so that guy had named it however he pleased. Sometimes names got changed if they strayed too far from the zone's characteristics, but Avoid the Kiss actually fit quite well.
Avoid the Kiss was rated as Dangerous. Native plants—underground vines—lived there. Their hunting method involved setting traps. From above, the traps looked exactly like someone had kissed the ground. Maybe the name was a small mercy. After it was coined, deaths in the zone dropped sharply. People became much more careful about avoiding kisses thanks to the ridiculous name. Perhaps the namer had simply tried to make the danger obvious at a glance.
I positioned the witch appropriately and activated the relic just like before. Then I sprinted toward Avoid the Kiss at full speed.
Tatatata—
Soon I spotted the witch rising into the air with Fly from the edge of the temple. I leapt toward her. Momentum carried us upward in a rapid ascent.
"Good. Straight to the center!"
Unlike the Frog Pirate Ship, the vines couldn't swarm us. Pirates were high-risk; the kiss zone was merely dangerous. That was why summoning dark elves near the temple only let the vines lick the surface before retreating. We needed to throw them as far as possible.
At least past the wall.
Whoosh—
We cleared one wall. Below, clusters of kiss marks began appearing on the ground. I could see them because I knew what to look for; to anyone else they would just look like ordinary root bundles. Soon, multicolored light began radiating from my hand.
"Hmm. A little short, isn't it?"
We were still a bit away from the true center. But you couldn't always get the best result.
"Still, free corpses are free corpses."
I hurled the relic with all my strength. It flew far, rolled between the kiss marks, and instantly summoned over a hundred enemies around it. At the same time, the traps activated.
Crack— Crunch—
"E-enemies!"
"Fight back!"
Watching from above, I issued the recall order. They would wipe each other out just fine. Later I could send zombies to collect only the dark elf corpses and whatever resources the plants yielded.
"Let's head back."
"Yes... Master..."
After finishing two zones in thirty minutes, I prepared for the last one. This zone's name was also the work of the kiss-zone namer: The Ugliest Man in the Province.
The biggest feature of The Ugliest Man in the Province was that it was completely surrounded by walls. You had to cross a wall to enter. That worked in my favor. Since the elves wouldn't be crossing walls themselves, I could just toss the relic inside and let one side slaughter the other until only corpses remained. Strictly speaking, though, that plan wouldn't work here.
The Ugliest Man in the Province was a laboratory. Machinery lined every surface, and all kinds of monsters lived inside. When intruders appeared, the machines would endlessly produce more monsters. In other words, dark elves who didn't know the solution would lose, and their corpses would likely all be devoured. There were two ways to stop the process: destroy every machine, or find and kill the laboratory's master.
This was where the zone's name shone. The ugliest-looking specimen inside was the master. Kill it, and the machines would shut down.
"Whoa... That name really delivers."
I circled the zone with the witch until we spotted an obviously hideous specimen. The experimental monsters looked "bizarre," but the lab master looked genuinely "ugly." It was clearly the ugliest man in the province.
"What do you think? You agree, right?"
The witch stared at it for a moment before answering.
"Yes... That specimen has the highest mana reading..."
Mana? Come to think of it, how had the first discoverer found the ugliest man? This zone offered guaranteed rewards but became quite troublesome if you didn't know the trick. Maybe the namer had used a special method like the witch's to identify it, then renamed the zone for the sake of newbies.
"If you've found it, that's enough. Kidnap it for now."
"Yes..."
The plan was simple. I would activate the relic, throw it over the wall, and wait. Once the dark elves were sufficiently thinned out, I would kill the kidnapped master. The machines would stop, and so would the specimens. A bit of prep work, but ultimately the cleanest zone.
Whirrr— Whirrr—
As planned, I threw the relic into The Ugliest Man in the Province. The machines began operating at the intruder's arrival.
"Wh-where is this?"
"Monsters are coming!"
The dark elf warriors were far stronger than the specimens. They repelled the first and second waves with almost no losses. But the zone hadn't been rated high-risk because the specimens were strong. Third wave, fourth, fifth. With each repeated assault the dark elves grew exhausted and their numbers dwindled. Not knowing the solution, they could only rest and prepare for the next attack.
At the eleventh wave, I gave the order.
"That's enough. Send the ugly guy over."
At my command, a massive fireball erupted from the witch's fingertips and incinerated the master.
Fwoosh—
Only about five dark elves remained, all badly injured. They wouldn't last long. I just needed to send zombies to collect the rewards.
"You stay here and clean up. You know what to do, right?"
"Transporting troops... and securing batteries..."
"Good. You know your stuff."
Because The Ugliest Man in the Province was walled off, only key zombies could enter easily. The witch's Fly would solve that. The reason I was redeploying zombies to already-cleared zones was the Charging Battery item. It was a consumable obtained here, used for my Golem Ring and Energy Storage Unit. An excellent item compatible with most energy-consuming equipment.
"Only one left now."
"Is the last one the pit...?"
"Yeah, that's right. Why?"
"I sense very ominous mana from that place..."
"Ominous mana?"
The pit was the zone where I planned to throw the final relic. According to the community it was high-risk, but that alone wasn't enough to warrant mentioning "ominous" at this point.
"Hmm... Then before the last toss, I should do a quick preliminary survey. You keep working here."
"Understood..."
When I returned to the palanquin, Nareun-i was there. She had remained in this location, acting as my proxy commander in my absence. Seeing me, she began her report.
"Two normal, two dangerous, one high-risk. Completed."
No casualty reports. All forces had grown strong enough to clear zones without losing any zombies.
"Good work. Now start sending troops to the zones where we scattered relics. There might still be some dark elves left in the pirate and kiss zones."
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Hard work? I just watched."
Nareun-i headed off toward the monkey group while Baengnae approached holding meat in both hands. Oil and blood dripped from the chunks.
"Baengnae brought it."
I cut a suitable piece and grilled it over the nearby campfire. It melted in my mouth.
"Oh... This is good."
"Hehe. Baengnae made it."
The meat came from a sea lion. In a corner of the temple lay the remains of a massive sea lion, carved up in several places. Baengnae had cut a piece from its flank and brought it to me. She had stationed several elves to guard the carcass so no other zombies could eat it.
A special individual?
Known sea lions measured two meters. The meat Baengnae had brought looked at least 1.5 times larger.
She must have visited the Sea Lion Feast and picked out the tastiest one to bring back. While finishing the meal Baengnae had provided, I studied the map. Clearing this area would put us at the halfway point of Stage 4. I had expected some time to spare, but the growing number of zombies had accelerated our pace beyond belief.
At this rate, we'll finish within a week.
The remaining zones had a higher average difficulty, but that was no longer a problem. The only variable was an event. Since none had appeared yet, it was probably hidden somewhere among the remaining zones.
Just as I finished eating, Nareun-i returned.
"How did it go?"
"In the pirate ship, the frogmen won. Fortunately we arrived in time, so they didn't eat many dark elves. We gained sixty elves."
"The frogmen's performance wasn't good?"
"No. As you predicted, their low intelligence led us to classify them as food."
"Good. Next."
"The kiss... vine zone had many surviving elves, so we obtained 120 zombie conversions. However, thirty monkeys died during the battle."
"The elves were that strong?"
"The dark elves summoned through the relic were far stronger than before. Analysis shows the new elves possess combat power comparable to evolved monkeys."
That was good news. We had lost thirty ordinary monkeys but gained numerous dark elves on the level of evolved ones.
"Nice work wrapping that up. The witch isn't here, so the ugly man zone is still in progress, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
I smiled faintly. The zombie gains I had just heard were only part of it. The native creatures we secured would strengthen the zombies, and there were still fruits to collect. But before gathering the fruits, there was something else I needed to do first.
I took out my phone.
"You worked hard. You couldn't move around properly because you were stuck being commander, right? Let's do some proper exercise."
Nareun-i understood my intent and grinned, enlarging both her hands. Her sharp claws grew larger as well, gleaming black.
"Thank you for your consideration, Master."
I pressed Combat Start.
From Stage 4 onward, mid-bosses appeared before the final boss.
Rumble—
Let's see how strong this one is. Strong specimens were always welcome.