The dwarf packed up his luggage and was checking if anything had been lost in the previous chaos. Suddenly, his gaze was fixed on Jess's right side.
Jess glanced to the right and found a skeleton buried up to its chest in wild grass. Although the bones all over its body were in a mess and not in a proper shape, each part was still relatively complete. Jess was sitting on its right leg.
Jess closed his eyes helplessly and said, "I won't be poisoned, damn it."
"Anyway, you brought a change of clothes. Now I have to say you were far-sighted, brother." Gerred said half-jokingly.
"I brought clothes, but I didn't bring pants." Jess slowly stood up and found that this person was missing an arm. Perhaps it was the owner of the arm just now.
"The corpse has rotted down to only bones, but there is still flesh on the arm. How is this possible?"
"I guess." Gerred said, "His arm may have been scratched by a zombie and poisoned. To avoid turning into a zombie, he cut off his own arm."
Jess looked at the dusty and empty skull and asked, "So was it successful or not?"
"Cutting off an arm is very painful." Gerred said, "If it's really like what I guessed, I have to admit that this human is quite courageous and decisive. He probably fainted due to the unbearable pain and bled to death or something, and then was eaten by some other small wild animal. If it were a large animal, like a bear, there should not be such a complete skeleton left."
Jess asked doubtfully, "You described it in too much detail, right?"
"This kind of thing happens too often. In Hinterlands, I saw an elf who died like this." Gerred said, "But it wasn't a zombie that bit him, but a spider."
Jess had a very deep impression of the spiders in Hinterlands.
Once he was still a bit afraid of spiders. When he was doing the quest of the Spider God in Hinterlands and reached the final step of killing the boss. When he saw the huge spider mother suddenly appear, he felt goosebumps all over his body while fighting the monster.
The Spider God also had a very cool name, but he couldn't remember it all of a sudden. After thinking for a while, it became an obsession and he had to remember it.
"Sha... Shade..." He tried to read it out to find the feeling.
"Shadra." The dwarf added, "The Spider God worshipped by the Amani trolls. You really know a lot."
"Yes, that's the name." Jess suddenly felt relieved. He said, "There are also some troll ruins in Lordaeron. Over there in Hillsbrad. It's not strange that I know about it."
Without the obstruction of the metal fence and the low wall, the cemetery shrouded in the morning mist that had not yet dissipated felt even colder than before.
Now Jess felt as if he was completely exposed to this cemetery, without any protection or gap. Once any danger suddenly emerged, there would be no way to hide or avoid it.
The two stuck close to the fence and walked along the edge of the cemetery. Gerred stared at any possible abnormalities in the middle, while Jess held the scroll in his hand and looked for suspicious plants around.
The two searched for about an hour or two. By the time the mist had thinned a bit, they only found three clusters of Silverleaf of different sizes. One of the clusters was still difficult to determine if it was Silverleaf or some other similar plant of the same genus.
In short, the harvest was not very abundant.
Most importantly, they had searched several tombstones near the edge of the cemetery in succession, but there was no trace of Grave Moss.
This is not a game. Even real herbs don't glow, and when you move the mouse over them, it won't show interactivity. Of course, there is no mouse pointer for you to move here. Everything depends on the naked eye and hands.
After concentrating on looking for two hours, Jess was already so tired that his eyes hurt. The bag was only filled a little at the bottom, and it was all cheap Silverleaf.
"We have to go deeper." He confessed, "We can't find anything good at the edge."
He pointed to a stone house guarded by animal statues not far away and said, "See those tombs? Maybe there is a lot of Grave Moss waiting for us inside. But we are just circling around here and missing the chance to get rich again and again."
"Lead the way." Gerred said.
Jess looked at him, took a long breath, and said, "Lead it if I must."
After saying that, he walked directly towards one of the tombs.
Gerred licked his dry and thick lips. It seemed that he was suddenly a bit surprised by Jess's courage. But since the human had already walked in front, there was no reason for the dwarf to fall behind.
Although the tombs here had stone brick walls, most of the doors were made of wood.
Due to the lack of maintenance and repair for a long time, the door of this tomb was also cracked. It seemed that it could be split open with an axe.
Jess gripped the axe in his hand. However, the extreme silence around him made him unable to chop down recklessly. After all, this sound might be heard throughout the entire cemetery.
"I'll do it." Gerred stepped forward. First, he peeked through the crack in the door to make sure there were no living corpses hiding behind to ambush. Then he reached out and firmly grasped the crack in the door.
"Hey... uh..."
The dwarf exerted force, his face flushed red and veins bulged. Saliva even sprayed out. With a cracking sound, a large piece of wood was torn off by him.
The chain swayed back and forth emptily. Gerred casually broke the remaining wooden boards and stepped directly inside.
Jess thought to himself that this was like bringing a siege engine.
The inside of the tomb was unexpectedly spacious. And there was also a tunnel leading directly to the innermost part. Judging from the engraved stone tablets around, it could be seen that a noble of Stormwind was buried here. Now his surname is unknown.
This noble died in the invasion of the Gurubashi Empire decades ago. He was also a war hero.
The Gurubashi trolls had occupied the entire Elwynn Forest all the way to the southern Stranglethorn Vale region for thousands of years. However, as the humans of the Stormwind Kingdom developed and grew stronger, the countless small and large conflicts between the two sides over thousands of years gradually pushed the actual control line of the troll empire southward. Eventually, the territory of this empire that once controlled half of the continent was confined within Stranglethorn Vale.
Twenty years before the opening of the Dark Portal, the farmers of the Stormwind Kingdom once again clashed with the trolls in Stranglethorn Vale. The Gurubashi War broke out as a result.
The leaders and most powerful generals of the Gurubashi trolls came out in full force this time. After all, they could no longer tolerate their already narrow territory shrinking again. They planned to teach the humans a thorough lesson.
Once the foundation of the ten-thousand-year empire got angry, it was unstoppable. The Stormwind Kingdom was continuously defeated. In less than a year, the troll army had already reached the gates of Stormwind City.
However, what greeted them this time was Medivh.
Medivh, who was only in his twenties at that time, used terrifying magic of unknown origin to completely wipe out the entire troll army under the city wall. The leader of the Gurubashi and all the elites of the entire empire instantly turned to ashes. Only a small number of remaining troops fled back to Stranglethorn Vale and huddled in the capital Zul'Gurub and several troll cities further south. They no longer dared to go out easily.
Not only were the trolls terrified by Medivh's magic, but the humans were also greatly frightened. The House of Wrynn deliberately concealed the power of this magic and said that it was the advantage of the weather and the bravery of the soldiers in defending the city that finally repelled the trolls.
Of course, although humans finally achieved a turnaround victory in this war, they also paid a huge price. Judging from the time node described in the eulogy on the inscription, this noble was killed in the first wave of the troll invasion.
"Unexpectedly, the owner of this tomb is still a war hero." Jess said.
"Maybe he was a knight." Gerred said, "Then his burial objects might include swords and armor..."
"We are here to pick herbs, not tomb robbers." Jess said, "Moreover, do you want to be chased by ghouls while carrying a whole set of dozens of pounds of metal armor?"
Gerred said proudly, "If I had the full body armor of a Stormwind knight, why would I run when encountering ghouls?"
Jess said, "They'll spray corpse poison on your face. Unless you block all the gaps on your face with mud, otherwise you'll still be in trouble."
"Damn you." Gerred said while throwing a small stone. Jess easily dodged it.
They took the torches hanging on the shelf at the entrance of the tomb. After lighting them, they walked down together. Only then did they realize that although this tomb was quite large in size, most of the coffins were empty and there were not many burial objects.
As it got darker and quieter around them, their footsteps also slowed down.
A faint, inexplicable damp and stinky smell had not dissipated. This indicated that there should be corpses in the tomb.
Since there were corpses, there might be Grave Moss. After all, according to the description in the book, Grave Moss grows by absorbing the necromantic aura from corpses.
What should have been creepy now became the reason for anticipation.
Only the footsteps of the two people remained in the tomb. Gerred walked in front and Jess walked behind. Before long, Jess suddenly heard a sound of water right beside him.
"What?"
"I stepped on water." Gerred shone the torch down and only then realized that he had stepped on a step. The bottom was already completely flooded.
He shook the torch and realized that the firelight couldn't even illuminate things a few meters away. That was why they didn't notice the accumulated water not far away at all.
Gerred asked, "What's going on here? How come it's so dark that even the firelight is swallowed?"
Jess retorted, "Isn't it the same outside?"
Although he said so, when they came here and truly touched the darkness that shrouded Duskwood, they truly felt how terrifying the darkness in Medivh's heart was.
It permeated every corner of the entire forest and gathered in every hidden shady place underground. Here, it gathered more and more and became darker and darker, making the living feel worse than death and the dead unable to rest in peace.
"We should go in and out quickly." Jess said, "If the things in this darkness are poisonous, we have no way to treat it."
"You only think of reminding me now?" Gerred waded in the water while holding the torch and ran faster and faster step by step.
It seemed that this tomb had collapsed due to some geological reasons. The walls in many places were cracked.
The ground had also changed from stone slabs to soil. Some strange cave algae grew here. They couldn't recognize its species at all. It was also not any kind of herbal variety that Jess had seen in books.
After walking a few steps, they reached the deepest part. In front, there was only the last half-submerged stone coffin left.
Jess held the torch close to the water surface and looked around at the bottom. Except for some waterweeds, there was no trace of anything similar to Grave Moss.
Gerred groped on the wall for a long time. Looking back at Jess, he also shook his head.
Now, only the last tightly closed stone coffin in the entire tomb had not been searched.
Jess felt his scalp go numb. Opening a stone coffin was something that anyone would feel uncomfortable thinking about. Especially when they didn't know if the corpse inside was dead or alive.
"No matter what the tomb owner is wearing or holding, don't touch it." He emphasized.
"I wouldn't take the things close to a dead person even if you asked me to." Gerred muttered while approaching the stone coffin.
He gritted his teeth and pushed the stone coffin aside a little to reveal a small opening. Then he immediately raised his sword and watched for a while. After making sure that the corpse inside didn't reach out to scratch him, he continued to push.
Jess held the torch close and shone it inside. Suddenly, the darkness inside began to churn violently.
"What the hell is this?!" Gerred was so scared that he almost ejected backward and fell into the water. Jess also retreated several steps and leaned against the wall.
A mass of dark things surged out like boiling mud from the opening of the stone coffin that had not been fully pushed open. In this tomb that was so dark that it couldn't be darker, it was impossible to see clearly.
"If we don't earn a gold coin after this trip, I'll tie you up and sell you in the Old Town to be someone's sex slave!" Gerred cursed loudly and approached again.
"You... There has to be someone willing to pay for it." Jess held the torch close. Only then did the two of them see what those black things were.
They were countless densely packed beetles!
The beetles surged out of the tomb like a tide and then crawled into the water. Seeing this scene, Gerred could barely hold his sword steady.
However, these beetles didn't seem to have the intention of attacking them. They were just frantically fleeing from the firelight and spreading out in the water.
Gerred seemed to understand something and said, "These beetles are no longer living insects. They are all mutated creatures nourished by necromantic energy. Many of the torches in tombs are made by the Church of the Holy Light. Especially in the family tombs of nobles, they have a slight ability to exorcise evil. That's why the beetles are running away."
"If we are bitten by these beetles..." Jess asked hesitantly.
Gerred said, "You might get sick, vomit and feel dizzy and so on. But one or two bites won't be enough to turn you into a zombie with this little poison. Hurry up and see if there is Grave Moss inside."
Jess held the torch close again. Most of the beetles inside had already escaped. Inside, a rotting corpse was lying flat in the mud. Around the exposed bones were covered with dark green strange plants. They were like a bunch of spores stuck to the surface of the leg bones and the already blackened clothes.
"This is Grave Moss." Jess with great effort restrained the urge to vomit.
Gerred sighed and said, "I really fucking hope you said this isn't it."
Although Jess pressed his nose hard with his arm, although he knew it wouldn't help much.
It was just that the corpse in front of him had rotted to the extreme that he could imagine. But the stench in the air was indeed not very obvious.
"Why isn't there much stench?"
Gerred pinched his nose and said, "All corpses affected by necromantic magic don't have the stench of natural corpse decay. Instead, there is more of a strange fishy smell, just like this. This one might be even less smelly since it's soaked in water... Let's not discuss these anymore. Hurry up and start working! The sooner we can get out, the better!"