Chapter 12: Zombie coal mine

The four of them eventually formed a blind trust in Xiao Yu; nothing he said could be considered inaccurate. Now that there was a coal mine nearby, some rough coal could be found, so it was possible to bring some light to their dark, cold underground cave. The air circulation in the underground space and its tunnels wasn’t good. If they had chosen to burn firewood, it would have surely generated smoke and fumes, which could readily interfere with the air quality in the cave, and in the long run, pose a threat to their lungs. Instead, if they ignited a small amount of lump charcoal, the situation would improve significantly, and the warmth would be sufficient.

The trees became increasingly sparse, and their vision abruptly expanded when they turned around a huge tree. They could see an open grassland region surrounded by little dark coal mounds, and in the middle was an abandoned mine on a low mountain. The wood above the mine entrance was rotten, covered with moss, and crumbling.

Yet this was a minor detail; the most eye-catching thing was those dozens of figures wandering around the mine.

Wang Chao grimaced strangely and said, “There are people here?”

Even a moron could recognize that those roaming figures were not humans. They were all shirtless, unkempt, covered in decay and festering, with maggots growing in their flesh, their eyes entirely white, and their expressions dull. With that mouth full of fangs, they occasionally let out a long beast-like howl, their limbs were very stiff, so they staggered slowly, all looking hideous and terrifying. They were highly similar to human beings, but with those pair of long pointed ears, they definitely belonged to a different species.

Xiao Yu explained: “This is a rotten zombie, a monster of the undead tribe. Like the skeleton, the rotten zombie is the lowest existence in the zombie family. However, the latter group is higher in rank than the skeleton family, so the rotten zombie is much more powerful than the dry skeletons. They are slightly more powerful than goblin slaves in terms of sheer strength, and their bodies are exceedingly tough, which makes them difficult to kill, but their largest and most fatal weakness is their speed.”

“Why do some of them look different?”

Jiang Xiaowen found that among the dozen or so rotten zombies, there were some other kinds of different zombies mixed in. They looked similar, but they moved much faster with a big shovel in hand.

“Those are zombie miners, far more powerful than rotten zombies. I am actually aiming at the shovels and pickaxes in their hands. But they are still elementary monsters, and their bodies are as hard as iron, so with your current strength, even if they stand and let you hit them, I’m afraid you still can’t even leave a scratch. I will deal with these monsters. As for the rotten zombies, you guys deal with them. We’ll split them, so it’s safer; rotten zombies have a sort of poison on their bodies. If you’re scratched, you may be infected, so be careful.”

Wang Chao shrunk his neck and asked, “Will being infected with an undead’s poison turn you into a zombie?”

“Fatty, you watch too many zombie movies.” Shaking his head, Xiao Yu continued, “their poison won’t turn you into zombies, but it’s very dangerous. If you get scratched enough, you’ll rot and die.”

Jin Shi couldn’t wait, “We’ve finally met another creature that can help us get stronger!”

“No more talking.” Xiao Yu took out the bone blade, “Let’s go; low-level zombies have very little intellect and vigilance. They will only spot us if we get too close. So don’t draw too much at once.”

Xiao Yu was the first to rush over. This area was very vast, as big as several football fields, and he easily avoided the wandering rotting zombies in the front row. Then he locked down on a zombie miner with a rusty shovel and slashed down on him with his blade.

Zombie miners were elementary-level monsters, and their speed was even slower than other elementary monsters, but their bodies were as hard as steel, and they were quite powerful. Waving that shovel in their hands could simply cut iron like its mud. However, when Xiao Yu triggered his ‘eyes of insights,’ the zombie miner’s motions became stiff, full of defects and flaws in his eyes, not enough to pose a threat to him.

Although the attack did not pose a significant threat, it was quite challenging to dodge. Xiao Yu ultimately sliced off the zombie miner’s head after ten minutes of combat and a dozen consecutive slashes, gaining slightly more energy than a goblin warrior’s worth. With a lot of effort, he barely tore off the large rusty shovel from the hands of the zombie miner. He put it inside the space ring, released the eyes of insight, and stopped to rest and take a look at the situation of the others.

The four of them had already engaged the rotten zombies. Han Kexin and Jiang Xiaowen formed a group. The two charming beauties cooperated tacitly. After attracting the attention of a rotten zombie, Jiang Xiaowen forcefully overcame the fear in her heart and stabbed the monster with the short spear, her eyes closed. The zombie’s body was hard, and the short spear couldn’t fully pierce it much as the flesh resisted, preventing the weapon from moving forward. The zombie’s arms started waving around, trying to attack the girl. Jiang Xiaowen had previously killed four goblin slaves, and her power was not insignificant, albeit she could only hold on for a brief duration. Han Kexin took this opportunity to smash the rotting zombie’s head with a goblin club.

After hitting it a few more times, the rotten zombie’s head was bleeding and finally broke open. The two hurriedly ran for a certain distance after the monster’s head was smashed.

Then they exchanged roles instantly. Han Kexin held the monster in place with the short spear while Jiang Xiaowen swung the wooden club and smashed it hard on its head, and so on and so forth. One person pierced the wooden spear into the zombie’s body to restrict its movement, and the other smashed the zombie’s head. In this way, one person defended, and the other attacked, as the two successfully hunted and killed several zombies.

Wang Chao and Jin Shi, on the other hand, took up wooden clubs and casually charged at the zombies, bashing their skulls. As a result, they were frequently pursued by the monsters. These two would have perished a long time ago if the zombies had been able to run faster after them. The result was quite embarrassing, and the efficiency was not as high as the other girls.

“Two pig brains!”

Xiao Yu wanted to warn them, but he didn’t dare to speak loudly in front of all the monsters nearby, so he gave up and continued to assault the other miner holding the pickaxe. Xiao Yu’s combat experience, along with his keen “eyes of insight”, made him nearly unstoppable in this area. In less than an hour, he killed five to six zombie miners while his enemies couldn’t even touch his clothes.

Four shovels and two pickaxes were gathered in a short period of time. Those tools would make it considerably easier for everyone to set up traps. Since there were no more zombie miners left outside, Xiao Yu had no option but to enter the mine and continue his hunt.

The coal mine was decaying and utterly dark. From time to time, he could hear terrifying howls, which were the distinct cries of zombies. The mine’s interior was relatively dry and extremely deep; no one knew how deep it could reach.

According to the memories of his previous life, there was a large number of elementary zombie miners inside, and there was also a type of chained zombie that was in the elementary realm, yet stronger than the zombie miners. In the deeper parts of the mine, it was said you could find a terrible poisonous zombie, a first-order undead. But Xiao Yu has no way of confirming whether that was the end of it or if there were even stronger monsters further down the mine. In his previous life, eight elementary realm warriors who confronted the poisonous zombie all died as seven died underground, while one fled but passed away within a few days afterward.

These eight people were the strongest in the team at the time.

Xiao Yu, who had survived for three weeks, was still unevolved. And so he was neither strong nor weak in their group; it could be said that he was unremarkable. Even after he left the forest more than three months later, his strength was at most the level of a second-rate expert, and there was no major change in the immediate short term. Later on, he succeeded and established himself amongst the ranks of the top elites on several occasions. Even after a few years, when he gradually left the top of the pyramid, he could still be regarded as a first-rate expert.

There were many geniuses who were mediocre at first and died quietly, with no one noticing their talent.

Hours passed, and suddenly a roar echoed throughout the mine; the voice was hoarse and piercing.

“Aww!”

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A ferocious zombie covered in iron blue blood and wrapped with iron chains rushed down, roaring incessantly. The thick iron chains on its body constantly collided with the ground and the surrounding walls in the process of advancing rapidly. The crisp sound of ping-pong-pong reverberated in the deep mine. It fiercely waved its arms, frantically attacking with its left and right iron chains, whipping past it nonstop.

Xiao Yu dodged left and right, swinging the blade with both hands like a whirlwind, repeatedly slicing the iron chains that came his way.

The blade clashed violently with the iron chains, creating a flurry of sparks that illuminated the pitch-black mine.

Ding!

Xiao Yu seized a flaw and slashed hard at the chain on the neck of the chained zombie, leaving a huge gap in it.

The chained zombie let out an angry howl and swung its chains again. The force was very powerful, enough to knock down a buffalo.

Xiao Yu easily avoided every iron chain blow thanks to his ‘eyes of insight’. The earth trembled every time those massive iron chains connected with the ground. He slashed the chained zombie’s neck several times in succession, and the chains were cut off. Then, after a short period of entanglement, he seized an opening, kicked his legs on the ground, and leaped up like a cheetah as the elegant bone blade flashed in the air.

“bang!”

Xiao Yu’s feet landed on the ground, and his chest rose and fell as he panted slightly. At this time, he suddenly felt a strong sense of dizziness, and the red blood color in his eyes gradually faded, returning to normal pitch black again. It was his fourth time using the ‘eyes of Insight’ in this short duration, the consumption of his physical and spiritual power was huge, and even Xiao Yu was close to his limit.

The chained zombie stood motionless, a big gash plastered on its neck, thick black blood poured out from it, as its head slowly separated from its body, and fell backward to the ground, just right before the headless body covered with chains slowly followed suit.

Xiao Yu turned his head, wiped his sweat, and muttered to himself: “In addition to the seven goblin warriors killed yesterday, I have slain more than forty elementary realm monsters in total, and now I can cut off the heads of rotten zombies with just one blow. I have almost reached the level of the late elementary realm, and my strength should be about three times stronger than those who have just entered the elementary realm.”

Xiao Yu roughly calculated his own strength and looked back at the chained zombie, “I never thought that after rebirth, with the help of experience, combat skills, and my innate skill, my power could improve this quickly!”

He walked forward and took off the iron chains on the chained zombie, and put it inside his ring; the space ring became full. It was getting late that time, and the deeper he traveled inside the mine, the more uneasy he felt.

He had an intuition that if he trekked further, he would meet that poisonous zombie in a short amount of time. There should be a lot of zombie miners inside, but Xiao Yu didn’t want to kill them all at once, so he chose to remain and return when his power was strong enough to face that first-order monster. This site can also be set aside for others to advance.

Xiao Yu took a few deep breaths, turned around, and walked back. When he walked out of the mine, he was surprised to find that the rotting zombies outside had all been cleared up. Jin Shi and Wang Chao finally used their head and learned from Han Kexin and Jiang Xiaowen’s methods to kill the monsters.

“How is your situation? How many rotten zombies have you killed?”

Han Kexin wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, “I killed ten of them, and Xiaowen killed nine!”

Wang Chao and Jin shi looked frustrated, “We each killed seven.” They were very depressed that they were caught up by that little girl.

Han Kexin smiled and replied: “This was actually Xiaowen’s idea; otherwise, we would not be this efficient.”

Xiao Yu looked at Jiang Xiaowen in surprise and said, “You came up with that strategy just now?”

Jiang Xiaowen was panting from exhaustion but proudly puffed out her bulging chest and said, “Yes, it was me!”

“According to this progress, you will be able to evolve in a day or two.” Xiao Yu looked up at the sky and said to the others: “That’s it for today; there aren’t any rotten zombies left outside. Not to mention after fighting for so long, everyone should be hungry. Let’s find something to eat first; next, we’ll return to the underground area to share our harvest with everyone. With these tools, we can do various things.”

Wang Chao and Jin Shi used the prepared backpacks to load several loads of coal, and the five of them walked back from the same route.

Jiang Xiaowen’s mood has changed a lot compared to yesterday, and she often took the initiative to joke with everybody along the way. She was the flower of the arts and design Department and the school flower of the entire fine arts school. She was already exceptionally attractive, but when she smiled, she became even more beautiful while displaying a humble and outgoing temperament.

The woods felt very quiet; the lush branches and leaves hiding the sun made it look a bit dark, while the ground was covered with a layer of rotten plants. Several tree roots were exposed from the soil and intertwined with each other as moss grew on them, it was very slippery, and you could definitely fall if you didn’t pay much attention. Everyone needed to be careful with each of their steps.

“Wait!” Xiao Yu suddenly called out, “something’s wrong.”

Everyone was surprised as they all came to a halt at the same time, clenching their weapons in their hands, adopting a defensive posture, and becoming conscious of their surroundings.

Xiao Yu quickly ran to a large tree in front of him. A lot of excrement was found underneath the tree, exuding a very pungent smell. He frowned and said, “Ogre feces? It’s considerably fresh, so it shouldn’t be from long ago. Could it be that… an ogre tribe lives nearby? If that’s the case, we’re in big trouble!”

From the shape of the feces, Xiao Yu roughly distinguished the direction the ogre was facing and took a few steps in that direction, as he found a huge footprint on the ground, twice the size of a human being’s. After roughly comparing the size of the soles of the feet, the depth of the footprints, and the average length between the two footprints, he made a judgment: “Damn it, it’s actually an adult ogre warrior.”

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