Hyper-Dimensional Player-Chapter 399 - 26: Ancient Witch Demon

Duncan controlled the mechanical arm to continue digging downward, and at this moment he had already unearthed the frame of the Soul Furnace, which was about fifteen meters in diameter, forged from black iron, with the Holy Prayer of the Father of Dwarves engraved on it. However, after digging for quite a while, he still hadn’t found where the other hammer was.

There had been a major earthquake here once, and massive collapses buried everything. He had dug down to the stone slabs of the Divine Hall’s plaza.

Beneath the slabs were buried bones, and not those of dwarves, as the skeletons were quite delicate.

"Look what I found!"

At this moment, a bearded mercenary not far away who was also digging raised his hand. He held up a glittering goblet, and said excitedly, "A goblet of pure gold!"

"There must be a lot of treasures buried down here."

Suddenly, the others nearby were attracted over.

They no longer paid attention to Duncan’s side, focusing instead on digging down from that location, which should lead to a storage room or possibly a treasury because, after half a day, someone unearthed dozens of shining dwarf gold coins and various gems, most about the size of a thumb.

Perhaps they were digging too hastily.

Suddenly, the ground trembled slightly, and a mercenary fell right in, the entirety of him swallowed up as if by quicksand, leaving only half a foot visible. Luckily, someone nearby grabbed him, and Duncan quickly reacted, extending the mechanical arm to forcibly pull the man out.

He sat dazed on the ground for quite some time, his gaze vacant, muttering, "I felt like I saw a ton of gold just now..."

"There’s a mountain of gold down here!..."

With that, he opened his palm, revealing it to be full of gold dust.

Gold?

Duncan was not tempted, having once been the emperor of an empire, worldly gold and treasures were hard to attract him anymore. However, the others remaining were visibly excited, becoming agitated, with some eager to continue digging further.

It’s said that dwarves love to collect gold and jewels.

But this time they were more cautious, avoiding the area with quicksand, trying to dig a path from the side.

"What kind of creature’s bones are these?"

Duncan was examining the bones just unearthed, feeling they seemed somewhat human, but more delicate. There should have been a blood sacrifice done here, as seen by the countless fragments of bones.

As he was preparing to return to camp, suddenly a red dot seemed to flash by.

"What was that?"

"An enemy?"

Duncan immediately became vigilant, enlarging the God’s perspective, swiped over to the dark area on the right side of the ruins, but the red dot that had just flashed by had already disappeared, like an illusion.

That was definitely not an illusion.

The God’s perspective had never been wrong.

Just when Duncan couldn’t locate where the enemy was, the people digging not far behind him had begun exhibiting strange changes. The leader of the rebel troops, Bowen, had unknown when his eyes turned crimson red, his demeanor growing increasingly fanatical and excited, and the robust, nearly 1.9-meter tall man’s figure gradually became gaunt, yet he was entirely unaware, even pouncing directly onto the flowing pile of gold after opening a pathway.

"We’re rich!..."

"We’re rich! So much gold!..."

Behind that rebel, the rest all appeared similarly, their bodies gradually hunching and withering, yet entirely oblivious, as if something was drawing away their vitality.

——Rebel - Bowen (Cursed) (Negative Energy Drain) (Two Stars downgraded to One Star).

——Mercenary - Bardin (Cursed) (Negative Energy Drain) (One Star downgraded to No Mark).

Something’s wrong!

This all happened too quickly.

By the time Duncan realized and picked up his weapon, the mercenary named Bardin had already been drained into a skeleton, and as his sole one-star mark disappeared, the person turned directly into a shriveled corpse, his body’s life force entirely siphoned away.

The others nearby were still completely unaware, Bowen even glanced at the corpse beside him, revealing a greedy smile: "Gold!..."

"It’s all mine!..."

Crack.

The last star on his body disappeared too, his whole person turning gaunt, sparse hair falling in large patches, his hunched body withering bit by bit, turning into a dry corpse within seconds.

All dead!

Duncan was the sole survivor.

Projection page.

He checked his status, confirmed he had no ’Cursed’ or ’Negative Energy Drain’ marks, then hurriedly turned with his weapon, withdrawing backward without a second thought. Duncan now had no idea what kind of creature he had encountered.

Dimension Space.

As Duncan rapidly withdrew, the red dot that had flashed by appeared again.

Then a line of prompts appeared.

——"Detected unknown spell!... Identifying and analyzing!..."

——"Invocation of Necromancy Effective!"

In an instant.

This dark passage was swept by a gust of eerie wind, the biting cold spreading in all directions, and those mercenaries who had just died into dry corpses all crawled back to their feet, faint soul fires appearing in their pupils.

Even the leading rebel picked up a gun, aiming towards Duncan’s position.

"What kind of ghostly thing is this? Undead!?"

Duncan instantly countered, grabbing a rifle, firing da-da-da, the few corpses that had just stood up immediately had their heads blasted off.

Woo woo woo!

A ghostly whisper echoed, under Duncan’s slightly surprised gaze, a crooked corpse, like a ghoul, climbed rapidly toward him, pulling the grenade pin at its waist, and then bit it into its mouth, charging madly toward his position.

This is an attempt to perish together with him.

Bang!

While retreating, Duncan fired, the bullet hit the enemy’s skull, and in the spray of shattered bones, the congealed brain matter exploded like tofu.

Before he could catch his breath.

From the collapsed section of the initial passage came a sound of excavation, then a ghastly white hand bone extended out, and the first person to die also transformed into an Undead Creature. These undead retained their abilities from life, capable of wielding firearms and grenades, making them far more threatening than conventional Undead Creatures.

Duncan kept shooting and retreating, relying on the God’s Perspective, he gradually managed to take them down.

A faint glow emerged, pouring into his body.

——"Firearms Mastery: You are now proficient in using conventional firearms and can modify them to a certain extent. Greatly enhances firearm accuracy."

By the time he finished off the swarming Undead Creatures, Duncan had retreated to the entrance of the passage.

"Huh?"

At that moment, a whisper suddenly echoed in his mind.

Subsequently, a white light appeared beside Duncan, and a figure clad in a tattered gray-black magic robe emerged, extending a pale finger bone like a lightning bolt. In an instant, upon touching Duncan, it rendered him immobile.

A paralysis mark surfaced on the humanoid form No. 3.

——"You are affected by the Ghoul’s Touch."

——"You enter a paralyzed state."

Hiss! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Such a powerful creature.

Dimension Space, at this point Duncan was somewhat in a posture of hands-off-the-keyboard, as he could no longer control humanoid form No. 3.

——Ancient Witch Demon (Undying Lord) [Six-Star Silver Gray]!

This damn thing is too powerful.

It was Duncan’s first time encountering a unit with a six-star mark, and though the strength cap of World No. 3 is higher, the existence of this power level is a major boss anywhere.

"It’s the power of the Death Domain! ..."

"No!"

"Very close, but it’s not."

At this moment, in the eyes of the Ancient Witch Demon before him, a cluster of ghostly blue Soul Fire ignited, and under its gaze, Duncan felt as if his soul was being spied upon. The witch demon’s expression bore a hint of shock, murmuring, "Still has Dragon’s Bloodline?"

"The Giant Dragon should have long been extinct! ..."

With a wave of the witch demon’s hand, the paralyzed state on Duncan had already dissipated.

The witch demon raised its hand towards a nearby spot, soon an invisible soul of the dead was extracted and directly absorbed into its body.

It scrutinized Duncan in front of it, slowly stating, "You don’t belong to this world."

"Human."

"Where do you come from?"

Communicate?

Although still marked as a red enemy, the ability to communicate undoubtedly stirred something in Duncan’s heart.

If it intended to kill him, it would only take one Necromancy Spell.

Though the humanoid form No. 3 was something he seized, dying silently like this would be a huge pity.

In any case, one must seek a chance to live amidst certain death.

With the Mechanical Divine Sect already controlling this entire world, how could there still be such an ancient monster deep underground?

A gust of sinister wind blew past.

The air was filled with a stench of decay, who knows how long it had been buried underground.

At this moment, Duncan raised his head expressionlessly, gazing at the witch demon before him, his voice deep, "How can you be certain that I am human?"

Exactly!

He intended to impersonate an Evil God.

The strength of humanoid form No. 3 makes even Summoning Heroic Spirit difficult, unless one were to summon humanoid form No. 1 in the guise of an Immortal Heroic Spirit, otherwise it would not stand a chance against this Ancient Witch Demon.

Now, it was about playing gods and deceiving it as much as possible.

Even if it fails.

It’s still practice for deceptive skills.

Sure enough, hearing his words, the witch demon in front of him showed a grave expression, its body continuously flashed with several lines of invisible Spiritual Lights, as if casting spells in secret, its hollow eye sockets fixed on Duncan as it said, "An Evil God from the Otherworld?!"

It had just sensed Duncan devouring the Power of the Soul, which was why it appeared so suddenly.

The witch demon is a master at manipulating souls.

Ordinary mortals, not to mention devouring the Power of the Soul, find it difficult even to detect the existence of a soul.

Duncan did not answer this question, instead, with a slightly arrogant demeanor, he gazed down upon the witch demon in front of him and said, "How long have you been asleep underground?"

"The Undead?"

At worst, the humanoid form No. 3 dies here, at this time one must absolutely not show weakness.

.........