Chapter 180 - 153: Seventh Forest Field Army
"Little Claw, we found a Relic—an underground cemetery," Shire said with a smile to the Wriggling Claw, who was "taking a bath."
"A cemetery? Do you mean you found my master?" As soon as Little Claw heard this, it immediately leaped out of the glass tank, and two of its fingers even flew off in its excitement.
"I’m not sure, so I came back to tell you first," Shire said, hurrying over to pick up the two finger bones and bring them back to Little Claw. "Don’t get so excited. That cemetery is guarded by Skeleton Warriors. They’re very powerful. I think they might be guarding your master, but it’s also possible they’re not."
Wriggling Claw had previously told Shire that its master was a Witch Demon who had lived for a very long time. In that case, the master must be quite powerful, so it would make sense for him to summon a few Skeleton Warriors to act as guards.
"My master is very powerful. He studied Ancient Magic, so summoning Skeleton Warriors would indeed be easy for him." Wriggling Claw raised its middle finger and tapped its "head" a few times. "So, are we going over there now?"
"Yes, but since you’re about to see your master, shouldn’t you dress up a bit?" Shire said with a grin, pulling a black leather glove from behind his back. "I had this specially prepared for you. It looks very trendy."
"Thank you for being so thoughtful." Wriggling Claw controlled its bones and quickly slipped into the punk-style leather glove with five fingers. This immediately gave it a hint of a rebellious flair. "This feels a little different, a bit like when I still had flesh and skin."
"It looks pretty good." Watching the "clothed" Little Claw, Shire had to agree. At the very least, its bones wouldn’t go scattering everywhere now.
"Wait a moment. I need to go give those goblins some instructions and have them prepare some other herbs." Director Claw didn’t forget his duties, even as he was about to leave.
Soon, the party of goblins set out once more, heading straight for the cemetery Relic.
When they arrived again, Shire circled the entrance carefully a few times. He didn’t see any skeleton footprints on the ground, which meant the Skeleton Warriors inside the Relic had never come out. ’So they really are guarding something.’
Moreover, after Wriggling Claw arrived, it seemed to sense the aura of the Undead. Its entire body began to wiggle with joy.
"You’re finally going to see your master. You must be happy," Shire said, crouching down as he looked at Little Claw.
"I only sense the aura of the Undead, not my master’s presence yet. But I still need to go inside and see," Little Claw said. It crawled forward a few steps, then turned back to look at Shire.
"You don’t? Maybe he’s still slumbering in a sarcophagus," Shire said, raising an eyebrow in surprise. He immediately turned his head and ordered his subordinates, "Help Little Claw open the door."
"Will you need our help? We don’t know if those Skeleton Warriors will attack you." He walked over to Little Claw’s side and asked. If they weren’t its master’s guards, then there was indeed a danger.
However, on the Domain map, the icon for this Relic was a question mark, not crossed swords, so Shire felt it probably wasn’t that dangerous.
"I’ll go in and check first. Undead beings can communicate with each other." Seeing Red Eyes and Little John push the stone door open a crack, Wriggling Claw went SCRABBLE SCRABBLE down the dirt slope and slipped into the Relic.
"Run immediately if anything happens!" Shire called out to Little Claw, while also signaling the two at the door to be ready to provide backup. He couldn’t have anything happen to his "Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing."
BANG. A series of crashes came from inside the tomb chamber—the sound of coffin lids falling. The Skeleton Warriors were climbing out.
After that, the tomb chamber fell silent. There was no sound of clashing metal, nor did any Skeleton Warriors charge out.
Shire craned his neck, trying hard to peer through the crack in the door into the pitch-black tomb chamber. ’Don’t tell me those Skeleton Warriors broke it into little pieces. If it doesn’t come out soon, I’ll have to charge in and save the Claw.’
After a few more minutes of silence, just as Shire was about to give the order to enter, a bone claw came SLURP-SLURPING out.
"Little Claw?" Shire stared at the Wriggling Claw on the ground. "Did they strip you of your clothes?"
"No, uh, it’s a long story." Little Claw scurried in a few circles on the ground. "Come in with me. You can light a torch."
"Alright." Shire thought for a moment and decided to trust Little Claw. ’After all, it still needs my help to find its master, so it won’t harm me.’ However, he also secretly readied two Magic Scrolls in his hands.
The moment he entered the tomb chamber, Shire froze in his tracks. A dozen or so Skeleton Warriors were gathered around the stone door. Some were sitting, some were standing. Some casually shouldered their longswords, while others leaned on their rust-covered blades like canes. But one thing was the same for all of them: they were all staring at him with their green Ghost Fire eyes.
"Mighty warriors, is there something you wish to say?" Shire asked as he scanned the gray-white skeletons. With a glance, he spotted the glove he had given to Little Claw in the hand of one of the Skeleton Warriors.
RATTLE RATTLE. With a sound of scraping bones, a Skeleton Warrior came to stand before Shire. It looked down, sizing up the goblin before it, then turned its head to look at Wriggling Claw. Shire could only see its jaw move a few times, as if it were communicating with Little Claw.
"Should I have Fulu come in too?" Shire asked after a moment of thought.
Wriggling Claw raised its middle finger, then tapped its "head" a few times.
Soon, the big, round Fulu squeezed into the tomb chamber. It immediately tried to run away, desperately floating outward even as Shire grabbed its tentacles.
"You bandit! You said it wasn’t dangerous in here!" Fulu cried out, rubbing against the stone door. Its two eyestalks were already misty with tears, and the tentacles beneath its body pushed against the air with all their might, like an octopus trying to flee the tomb chamber at once.
"Just help me first. It’s not necessarily dangerous," Shire said, yanking on two of Fulu’s tentacles to stop it from escaping. A jet of air from the nozzle under Fulu’s body sprayed all over his face.
After a standoff that lasted several seconds, Shire finally "persuaded" Fulu. He flipped the big, round creature completely over and placed it between himself and the Skeleton Warriors. Fulu, crying, puffed out air with a "FFF... FFF..." sound, unable to move at all.
"Now we can communicate directly," Shire said with a smile.
"Bandit!" Fulu roared, writhing back and forth on the ground.
"I’ll pay you more," Shire said.
"Bandit."
"I’ll add 10 shells."
"Bandit."
"20."
"Ban—"
"30 is my final offer. Otherwise, I can just have Little Claw relay the message."
"Hero, please, speak your mind."
"We are the Seventh Forest Field Army. What kind of creature are you? We’ve never seen your like before." With Fulu present, the Skeleton Warrior on the other side could now communicate directly with Shire.
"I am... a goblin." Shire looked up at the Skeleton Warrior before him. Hearing its words, he paused for a moment. He didn’t understand what "Forest Field Army" meant, but more importantly, this Skeleton Warrior had apparently never seen a goblin before.
’How bizarre. I thought everyone in this world had either seen or heard of goblins.’
"Goblin? What kind of Race is that?" The Skeleton Warrior reached up and scratched its bony skull. "Are you a type of Beastman? You look like an underdeveloped, green-skinned Beastman, but aren’t all Beastmen brown-skinned?"
"Uh, I’m a goblin, not a Beastman," Shire had to emphasize again. He had seen depictions of Beastmen in encyclopedias before; they supposedly lived on another plane.
"What a strange new Race," the Skeleton Warrior said, shaking its head as it continued to size up the goblin before it. "So, go... goblin, why did you awaken us?"
"I didn’t intend to awaken you. I just saw that there seemed to be something here and came down to explore," Shire said, gesturing with his hands to explain his intentions.
"So, you’re a band of tomb raiders." After saying this, the Skeleton Warrior snapped its longsword up.
"No, you can’t say that! After all, this place has been abandoned for a long time. It took us a long time digging just to open the stone door," Shire quickly explained, taking a step back. At the same time, he reached behind his back and gripped a Magic Scroll.
"Although you have the aura of the Holy Country on you, tomb raiding is not permitted." The Skeleton Warrior kept its sword raised, its green Ghost Fire eyes locked on Shire.
"We’re just exploring a Relic, not raiding a tomb."
"A Relic? This is no Relic. This is the burial ground of the commander of the Seventh Field Army. You’ve come to the wrong place."
"The Seventh Field Army? Is that some kind of military unit? It sounds very impressive."
"Heh heh heh, to think someone has never heard of our renown," the Skeleton Warrior said, lowering its longsword. It then turned to look at its "comrades" around it. The jaws of the other skeletons made RATTLE RATTLE scraping sounds, as if they were all laughing.
"We are the Seventh Forest Field Army, who fought back the Wave of Magical Beasts and defended the Southern Fortress with our lives!" it said proudly, slamming its longsword into the ground and tilting its head high.
"A Wave of Magical Beasts?" Shire’s eyes went wide. This was the first time he had heard the term. "Magical Beasts have waves too? Aren’t they pretty easy to deal with?"
"Easy to deal with?" the Skeleton Warrior looked down at the goblin before it. "A few of them are easy, yes. But what about hundreds, or thousands?"
"This... I’ve never heard of so many Magical Beasts gathering together." Shire rubbed his temples. He had a feeling they weren’t talking about the same thing. The Magical Beasts he knew always appeared one or two at a time. He even had more than ten Beast Cores stored in a chest back at the Fortress.
He thought for a moment, then looked into the Skeleton Warrior’s Ghost Fire eyes and asked solemnly, "Excuse me, but when were you all sacrificed?"
"The Wave of Magical Beasts in the 12th month of year 374 of the Holy Calendar," the Skeleton Warrior said, enunciating each word. The other Skeleton Warriors also leaned on their longswords and slowly formed a line.
"The Holy Calendar?" Shire was stunned.