Chapter 223 - 137: Catch a Live One
Leaving the Undead Fortress, they arrived at the Jackal Wolfman Fortress. The place was a complete wreck. The ground was covered in bloodstains, and severed limbs could occasionally be seen poking out from under planks of wood and rocks.
Li Ziyu and Zhang Peng had no reaction; they had seen this sort of thing too many times and were quite calm. Liu Xingxing, however, still couldn’t get used to it. Her face was pale, and she stuck close to the other two.
The Undead were methodically gathering the corpses and collecting scattered fragments, then transporting everything back to the fortress’s Warehouse.
Li Ziyu walked at the very front, with Zhang Peng and Liu Xingxing a step behind him. They were flanked by over twenty Elite Heavy Hammer Skeleton Warriors.
Following the path they had scouted earlier, they advanced toward the Jackal Wolfman main tower. Just as they drew near, they heard a rhythmic clanging sound.
As they got closer, they saw dust billowing and planks of wood flying. The Giant Skeleton Warriors were still swinging their hammers, utterly engrossed in their work. They paid no mind to battles or gathering loot; their only mission was to tear down the building before them.
He glanced at the main tower, then back at the Giant Skeleton Warriors. Er... Li Ziyu suddenly seemed to understand why they hadn’t managed to demolish the main tower yet. It was really his own fault, not the Giant Skeleton Warriors’.
There were too few of them!
Even with 100 Giant Skeleton Warriors swinging their hammers non-stop, it was no easy feat to bring down a four- or five-story building.
Besides, the Giant Skeleton Warriors were a Combat Sequence unit. They just happened to be good at demolition; they weren’t architects. They couldn’t identify critical points like load-bearing walls. Their method of demolition was pure brute force—to put it bluntly, they just swung their hammers wildly until the building fell, whenever that might be.
And yet, in just two or three hours, they had managed to brute-force their way through a quarter of the building. That level of destructive power was definitely comparable to a husky, the so-called "captain of the demolition team."
"That’s enough. Stop," Li Ziyu said with a wry smile, looking at the Giant Skeleton Warriors who were still vigorously smashing the wall.
The moment their City Lord gave the order, the Giant Skeleton Warriors immediately stopped, silently turned around, and stood quietly in place.
Li Ziyu estimated that to quickly demolish a main tower the size of the one in the Jackal Wolfman Fortress, he would need at least one or two thousand Giant Skeleton Warriors. Any fewer, and they wouldn’t be of much use.
’But if they can’t take down the main tower, what about the other buildings?’
Li Ziyu’s gaze swept across the surroundings and landed on a wooden house nearby. It looked like a dwelling for the Jackal Wolfmen—the kind of building that would be classified as population-increasing housing in a game.
"Tear this one down for me!" Li Ziyu ordered, pointing.
The Giant Skeleton Warriors swarmed forward. Tearing down a wooden house didn’t require all 100 of them; with just ten or twenty Warriors, they smashed it to splinters in less than ten minutes.
’Just as I thought. The only reason they couldn’t demolish the main tower was because there weren’t enough of them. I’ll have to think about this when I get back. If I have to, I’ll summon more Giant Skeleton Warriors.’
Li Ziyu gave a new order to the Giant Skeleton Warriors who had just demolished the wooden house: they were to start with the smallest buildings and work their way up, first tearing down everything they could handle easily before considering the structures that required more numbers.
Once the order was given, the Giant Skeleton Warriors dispersed to demolish the surrounding buildings.
When these buildings were demolished, they would break down into basic resources like Wood, stone, Beast Hide, and so on. The Skeleton Undead could then transport these back to the fortress’s Warehouse. This was precisely why many City Lords were willing to ambush and kill newcomers.
You wouldn’t think basic materials would be so important, but they had many uses and were needed in large quantities.
While the Giant Skeleton Warriors struggled with the main tower, demolishing the other buildings was a piece of cake. They swung their heavy hammers—BAM, BAM—smashing away and creating a rhythm, almost like they were drumming.
Letting Benjamin escape during the last battle had been a lingering concern. He never expected the man to foolishly deliver himself to their doorstep this time, only to be wiped out in one fell swoop. It was a weight off his mind.
’Speaking of which, where is Benjamin? Where’s his body? Or did he die and is waiting to respawn?’
’With a quarter of the main tower collapsed, I wonder if the respawn function still works.’
’There’s only one way to find out if he’s respawning.’ Li Ziyu led his people into the Jackal Wolfman main tower.
With a quarter of it caved in, the main tower was in a state of ruin. It felt like walking into a building slated for demolition. Everything was a mess, and its former appearance could only be vaguely discerned.
The main tower had high ceilings. The first and second floors were both large halls, but the second-floor hall had a large throne-like chair in the center. Its function was likely similar to the great hall in the Undead Main Tower. The third floor was living quarters with many rooms, though most of them were unused. The fourth floor was a combat area with direct access to the roof. From the looks of it, the fortress’s outer shell had once been connected to this rooftop.
After a full sweep of the building, Li Ziyu regrouped with Zhang Peng and Liu Xingxing, who had both come back empty-handed. He couldn’t help but frown.
"Did you see Benjamin’s body, or anyone else’s?" Li Ziyu asked them.
"No," Zhang Peng and Liu Xingxing replied in unison, shaking their heads.
Li Ziyu’s frown deepened. ’Something’s wrong. This isn’t normal. Not only did Zhang Peng and Liu Xingxing not find any bodies, but I didn’t either. There weren’t even any bloodstains or signs of a struggle.’
’Could they have escaped?’
Li Ziyu had a bad feeling about this and quickly summoned a nearby Undead to question it.