How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 256

285. Omen (4)

“It’s coming.”

A definite sense of unease settled in.

Immediately, the floor began to churn, and a large number of skeletons emerged from below.

“Tch, these boneheads again.”

Alnix clicked his tongue, seemingly fed up with skeletons.

“Let’s take care of them first. Can you handle it?”

“Leave it to me!”

“Easy peasy!”

Alnix and Lucel confidently shouted and launched their attacks.

Alnix instantly jumped into the middle of the skeleton horde, throwing punches indiscriminately.

*Crack!*

As his fist swung wildly, fragments of shattered skeleton bones scattered into the air.

“Hahahahahaha! The feeling of these guys breaking is starting to grow on me!”

“…Ugh… How barbaric.”

Lucel shook her head briefly, looking disgusted, and gazed at the opposite side.

“Ifrit, burn all those nasty things to ashes.”

At Lucel’s gesture, flames surged from the air, and her fire spirit, Ifrit, descended.

Its size had also increased.

After visiting the Palzente Duchy, she had successfully raised Ifrit to a higher level.

Originally, it wasn’t planned, but it could be said to be a result of being conscious of Aileen’s case and referencing it.

“Honestly, those skeletons give me a weirdly bad feeling.”

Shuddering at the instinctive revulsion, Lucel instructed, and Ifrit slammed down its flame-covered fist, instantly turning them to ashes.

And…

“I’ll take care of that side.”

Sylvester pointed his sword and leaped forward.

While his two companions were blasting away the skeleton horde, an entity much larger than the others emerged from the other side.

Its size alone was three times that of the other skeletons.

More than anything, the aura it emitted was ominous.

In the hands of the large skeleton was a sword made of black magic.

“If it’s a sword, I’ll play with you.”

As if responding to Sylvester’s provocation, the giant skeleton charged and swung its black magic sword.

“Amateur.”

Sylvester simply parried it lightly, swinging his sword upward.

As the blue trail of Sylvester’s sword energy collided, the skeleton’s black magic sword shattered far too easily.

The sword energy continued to swing, smashing the skeleton and scattering it.

“Skeletons…”

Sylvester, who had been casually swinging his sword to smash the skeletons as if swatting away flies, noticed the next development and looked ahead.

A purple glow flashed for a moment, and that spot began to swell with dark energy.

“Tch.”

Rather than alerting his companions, he directly leaped toward that point and slashed.

The ominous glow scattered as soon as it touched Sylvester’s sword energy.

The moment that light disappeared, he heard something like a faint scream and sighed in displeasure.

“A curse attack using necromancy… It would have been troublesome if it had activated.”

“Ugh… Geez, that’s nasty.”

Lucel frowned as if the sound was unpleasant.

Skeletons and necromantic summons.

Only a black magician would be capable of such tricks.

Which meant.

“The summoner is nearby, right?”

Sylvester spun his sword in a light sword dance, effortlessly disarming the skeletons summoned near him, and gazed at a certain point.

“Are you coming out? Or should I drag you out if you don’t?”

There was no answer.

But that was the answer.

Sylvester took out a slender dagger from his pocket and flicked it.

The dagger left his hand silently and struck directly into the darkness.

“Kuaaaak?!”

A black magician stumbled out of the darkness, clutching his shoulder pierced by the dagger.

“…A pathetic hiding place.”

As expected, the black magician was the summoner, and the skeletons that had been swarming lost their power and collapsed as his concentration broke.

“Keeuk… How dare you come here… Keuat!”

The black magician, who was about to say something to Sylvester, spat blood and fell forward.

Without listening, Sylvester swung his sword and cut him down.

“You should have at least listened to what I had to say.”

Alnix gave a wry smile at the decisive action.

However, Sylvester coldly shook his head.

“It’s pointless. He looked like he was preparing another spell while pretending to talk.”

As he coldly stared at the black magician’s corpse, something like a stone rolled out from the body submerged in a pool of blood.

A catalyst used in black magic?

However, it seemed to be more than just a gemstone, emitting an ominous energy.

Just imagining its origin made him feel disgusted.

Sylvester destroyed it without hesitation.

“…Looks like it’s going to be a long cleanup.”

Sylvester shuddered at the still-lingering, uniquely evil aura of the black magician and the ominous premonition that it would take a long time to clear them away, and gestured as if to move further inside.

* * *

After that, they had to find and fight several more black magicians.

Some fled, while others set traps or arrogantly tried to face them directly with their magic.

“How dare you crawl in here without fear! Hahahahahaha! Yes! I’ll use you as the cornerstone of this great research… Kuaaaak?!”

And just now, Sylvester, having just blown away the head of a black magician who was confidently spouting nonsense out loud in front of them, shuddered as if exhausted.

“Unbelievable.”

Dealing with these idiots endlessly was mentally exhausting.

“So, how many have you cut down so far?”

“…I don’t know. I stopped counting after thirty.”

“You’ve cut down a lot… How wide is this place anyway?”

“To think that such a large-scale workshop would be set up in this backwater… No, maybe it’s because it’s a backwater that they set it up here.”

Alnix sighed deeply, as if he couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh anymore.

“If we’re not careful, we might have to go back and report this immediately, forgetting about our trip to the Forellos Empire.”

“…Let’s leave the testimony to the villagers on that point.”

“You really don’t want to go back, do you?”

He understood.

If they discovered a workshop of this scale, they might be held up for months, repeating the same story or being called in for on-site inspections.

Most of those who discovered black magician workshops either reported it only for the reward money and then disappeared, or, if they were lucky enough to deal with the black magician, simply took the black magician’s assets and research results and disappeared.

“It’s getting quiet, haven’t we taken care of everyone who needs to be taken care of?”

“Just in case, let’s look a little further inside and then retreat.”

If they had searched this far, even if other black magicians survived, they would have already fled.

If that was the case, they could retreat and leave it to the lord’s army, who would receive the report and send a dispatch.

“Yeah. Let’s go back quickly. Honestly, my stomach is a little upset because of these idiots’ black magic.”

“It must be tough for an elf with good senses.”

“It’s not that I have good senses, it’s that you’re insensitive, Alnix.”

Lucel and Alnix were having a somewhat relaxed conversation, as if they thought there were no more potential enemies.

Sylvester was about to say something to agree with the suggestion to withdraw.

“…It seems like we’ll have to stay a little longer.”

The two who understood the meaning also wore expressions as if they were fed up.

“Again?”

“What idiot hasn’t run away in this situation?”

No matter how much they cherished their workshops, how could they not understand the situation to that extent?

That’s what they were scoffing at.

“It’s not exactly because I’m foolish that I haven’t retreated. Of course, I deeply agree with the girl’s words that those who couldn’t protect their homes are fools.”

Was this voice another black magician?

The three of them didn’t bother to answer the girl’s voice and waited silently.

They wouldn’t underestimate her.

She might have set some kind of trap.

However, unexpectedly, it was the other side that revealed itself first.

“There’s no need to be nervous. The girl’s personality doesn’t suit scheming. I haven’t prepared anything else, though?”

She boldly walked out, revealing herself first.

The three of them were stunned by the sight.

“…What?”

“Is that real?”

“…I can’t believe it.”

The reason the three of them were surprised by the girl wasn’t because of her actions.

To put it bluntly, the girl wasn’t a black magician.

“Undead?”

A dead person whose life force could no longer be felt.

She could only be assumed to be a cold undead.

What blocked them at the end was not a black magician, but a single undead.

However, it seemed that she wasn’t an ordinary undead.

“…Is she really an undead?”

Sylvester was surprised as if it was unexpected.

She was definitely an undead.

Of course, unlike the common ones, her body was in perfect condition, as if it had been embalmed, except for the lack of blood.

The unique atmosphere of the dead that was definitely felt proved that she was an undead.

“That’s correct.”

The undead herself introduced herself.

“The girl’s name is Elles.”

Elles, who introduced herself, continued fluently.

“The girl is dead. Undead… or zombie… Please call me whatever is convenient. I don’t particularly care.”

“…A talking undead. Whose hobby is this?”

Lucel looked disgusted, as if she was repulsed.

Basically, the known undead are just corpses or souls swayed by evil forces such as black magic or mana [magical energy].

There’s no way they would have will.

If there was an undead capable of communication, it must have been created that way on purpose by someone.

“What a bad taste.”

“Please don’t say whatever you want.”

However, Elles said, as if she was displeased with their impressions.

“It is very natural to feel repulsion when the logic and emotions of the living are applied to the dead. Discussing it is foolish.”

“…What do you want to say?”

“Rather than words.”

Her body seemed to sway slightly.

“I want to show you with actions, though?”

In the blink of an eye, Elles was right in front of them, just a few meters away.

She was planning to attack immediately.

Before they knew it, Elles was holding a long rapier in her hand.

She stretched it out straight towards Lucel first.

“You are annoying.”

It was just a choice for efficiency.

However, Sylvester and Alnix were tired of ambushes.

On the other hand, Lucel, a spiritist, had many openings.

In that case, it was standard to target the vulnerable one first.

“How dare you!”

There was no way they would let her.

Sylvester’s sword skillfully deflected the undead’s rapier.

“You have to pick your opponents when you’re pulling tricks!”

And Alnix punched down, aiming for Elles’ defenseless neck.

When dealing with undead with physical means without targeting weaknesses, the most effective thing is to break and tear bones or muscles.

Anyway, if they can’t move, they’re just twitching corpses.

Alnix’s fist would sever her spine, and then Sylvester would cooperate to finish her off completely.

“…How naive.”

However, for some reason, Elles calmly rolled her eyes and stared at Alnix’s fist.

It was far from an attitude taken because she was not afraid of death because she was dead.

“Alnix! Pull back your fist!”

Sylvester, who belatedly sensed something, shouted, but it was a little late.

She stretched out her opposite hand, which was not holding the rapier, and received Alnix’s fist.